Bash Reference Manual

Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 1.1 What is Bash?
• 1.2 What is a shell?
• 2 Definitions
• 3 Basic Shell Features
• 3.1 Shell Syntax
• 3.1.1 Shell Operation
• 3.1.2 Quoting
• 3.1.2.1 Escape Character
• 3.1.2.2 Single Quotes
• 3.1.2.3 Double Quotes
• 3.1.2.4 ANSI-C Quoting
• 3.1.2.5 Locale-Specific Translation
• 3.1.3 Comments
• 3.2 Shell Commands
• 3.2.1 Simple Commands
• 3.2.2 Pipelines
• 3.2.3 Lists of Commands
• 3.2.4 Compound Commands
• 3.2.4.1 Looping Constructs
• 3.2.4.2 Conditional Constructs
• 3.2.4.3 Grouping Commands
• 3.2.5 Coprocesses
• 3.2.6 GNU Parallel
• 3.3 Shell Functions
• 3.4 Shell Parameters
• 3.4.1 Positional Parameters
• 3.4.2 Special Parameters
• 3.5 Shell Expansions
• 3.5.1 Brace Expansion
• 3.5.2 Tilde Expansion
• 3.5.3 Shell Parameter Expansion
• 3.5.4 Command Substitution
• 3.5.5 Arithmetic Expansion
• 3.5.6 Process Substitution
• 3.5.7 Word Splitting
• 3.5.8 Filename Expansion
• 3.5.8.1 Pattern Matching
• 3.5.9 Quote Removal
• 3.6 Redirections
• 3.6.1 Redirecting Input
• 3.6.2 Redirecting Output
• 3.6.3 Appending Redirected Output
 • 3.6.4 Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error
• 3.6.5 Appending Standard Output and Standard Error
• 3.6.6 Here Documents
• 3.6.7 Here Strings
• 3.6.8 Duplicating File Descriptors
• 3.6.9 Moving File Descriptors
• 3.6.10 Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing
• 3.7 Executing Commands
• 3.7.1 Simple Command Expansion
• 3.7.2 Command Search and Execution
• 3.7.3 Command Execution Environment
• 3.7.4 Environment
• 3.7.5 Exit Status
• 3.7.6 Signals
• 3.8 Shell Scripts
• 4 Shell Builtin Commands
• 4.1 Bourne Shell Builtins
• 4.2 Bash Builtin Commands
• 4.3 Modifying Shell Behavior
• 4.3.1 The Set Builtin
• 4.3.2 The Shopt Builtin
• 4.4 Special Builtins
• 5 Shell Variables
• 5.1 Bourne Shell Variables
• 5.2 Bash Variables
• 6 Bash Features
• 6.1 Invoking Bash
• 6.2 Bash Startup Files
• 6.3 Interactive Shells
• 6.3.1 What is an Interactive Shell?
• 6.3.2 Is this Shell Interactive?
• 6.3.3 Interactive Shell Behavior
• 6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions
• 6.5 Shell Arithmetic
• 6.6 Aliases
• 6.7 Arrays
• 6.8 The Directory Stack
• 6.8.1 Directory Stack Builtins
• 6.9 Controlling the Prompt
• 6.10 The Restricted Shell
• 6.11 Bash POSIX Mode
• 7 Job Control
• 7.1 Job Control Basics
• 7.2 Job Control Builtins
• 7.3 Job Control Variables
• 8 Command Line Editing
• 8.1 Introduction to Line Editing
• 8.2 Readline Interaction
• 8.2.1 Readline Bare Essentials
 • 8.2.2 Readline Movement Commands
• 8.2.3 Readline Killing Commands
• 8.2.4 Readline Arguments
• 8.2.5 Searching for Commands in the History
• 8.3 Readline Init File
• 8.3.1 Readline Init File Syntax
• 8.3.2 Conditional Init Constructs
• 8.3.3 Sample Init File
• 8.4 Bindable Readline Commands
• 8.4.1 Commands For Moving
• 8.4.2 Commands For Manipulating The History
• 8.4.3 Commands For Changing Text
• 8.4.4 Killing And Yanking
• 8.4.5 Specifying Numeric Arguments
• 8.4.6 Letting Readline Type For You
• 8.4.7 Keyboard Macros
• 8.4.8 Some Miscellaneous Commands
• 8.5 Readline vi Mode
• 8.6 Programmable Completion
• 8.7 Programmable Completion Builtins
• 9 Using History Interactively
• 9.1 Bash History Facilities
• 9.2 Bash History Builtins
• 9.3 History Expansion
• 9.3.1 Event Designators
• 9.3.2 Word Designators
• 9.3.3 Modifiers
• 10 Installing Bash
• 10.1 Basic Installation
• 10.2 Compilers and Options
• 10.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
• 10.4 Installation Names
• 10.5 Specifying the System Type
• 10.6 Sharing Defaults
• 10.7 Operation Controls
• 10.8 Optional Features
• Appendix A Reporting Bugs
• Appendix B Major Differences From The Bourne Shell
• B.1 Implementation Differences From The SVR4.2 Shell
• Appendix C GNU Free Documentation License
• Appendix D Indexes
• D.1 Index of Shell Builtin Commands
• D.2 Index of Shell Reserved Words
• D.3 Parameter and Variable Index
• D.4 Function Index
• D.5 Concept Index

Next: Introduction, Previous: (dir), Up: (dir) [Contents][Index]

Bash Features
This text is a brief description of the features that are present in the Bash shell (version 4.2, 28 December
2010).

This is Edition 4.2, last updated 28 December 2010, of The GNU Bash Reference Manual, for Bash, Version
4.2.

Bash contains features that appear in other popular shells, and some features that only appear in Bash. Some
of the shells that Bash has borrowed concepts from are the Bourne Shell (sh), the Korn Shell (ksh), and the
C-shell (csh and its successor, tcsh). The following menu breaks the features up into categories based
upon which one of these other shells inspired the feature.

This manual is meant as a brief introduction to features found in Bash. The Bash manual page should be used
as the definitive reference on shell behavior.

• Introduction: An introduction to the shell.

• Definitions: Some definitions used in the rest of this manual.

• Basic Shell Features: The shell "building blocks".

• Shell Builtin Commands: Commands that are a part of the shell.

• Shell Variables: Variables used or set by Bash.

• Bash Features: Features found only in Bash.

• Job Control: What job control is and how Bash allows you to use it.

• Command Line Editing: Chapter describing the command line editing features.

• Using History Interactively: Command History Expansion

• Installing Bash: How to build and install Bash on your system.

• Reporting Bugs: How to report bugs in Bash.

• Major Differences From The Bourne A terse list of the differences between Bash and historical versions
Shell: of /bin/sh.

• GNU Free Documentation License: Copying and sharing this documentation.

• Indexes: Various indexes for this manual.

Next: Definitions, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

1 Introduction
• What is Bash?: A short description of
Bash.

• What is a A brief introduction to

shell?: shells.

Next: What is a shell?, Up: Introduction [Contents][Index]

1.1 What is Bash?

Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, for the GNU operating system. The name is an acronym
for the ‘Bourne-Again SHell’, a pun on Stephen Bourne, the author of the direct ancestor of the current
Unix shell sh, which appeared in the Seventh Edition Bell Labs Research version of Unix.

Bash is largely compatible with sh and incorporates useful features from the Korn shell ksh and the C shell
csh. It is intended to be a conformant implementation of the IEEE POSIX Shell and Tools portion of the IEEE
POSIX specification (IEEE Standard 1003.1). It offers functional improvements over sh for both interactive
and programming use.

While the GNU operating system provides other shells, including a version of csh, Bash is the default shell.
Like other GNU software, Bash is quite portable. It currently runs on nearly every version of Unix and a few
other operating systems - independently-supported ports exist for MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows platforms.

Previous: What is Bash?, Up: Introduction [Contents][Index]

1.2 What is a shell?

At its base, a shell is simply a macro processor that executes commands. The term macro processor means
functionality where text and symbols are expanded to create larger expressions.

A Unix shell is both a command interpreter and a programming language. As a command interpreter, the
shell provides the user interface to the rich set of GNU utilities. The programming language features allow
these utilities to be combined. Files containing commands can be created, and become commands
themselves. These new commands have the same status as system commands in directories such as /bin,
allowing users or groups to establish custom environments to automate their common tasks.

Shells may be used interactively or non-interactively. In interactive mode, they accept input typed from the
keyboard. When executing non-interactively, shells execute commands read from a file.

A shell allows execution of GNU commands, both synchronously and asynchronously. The shell waits for
synchronous commands to complete before accepting more input; asynchronous commands continue to
execute in parallel with the shell while it reads and executes additional commands. The redirection constructs
permit fine-grained control of the input and output of those commands. Moreover, the shell allows control
over the contents of commands’ environments.

Shells also provide a small set of built-in commands (builtins) implementing functionality impossible or
inconvenient to obtain via separate utilities. For example, cd, break, continue, and exec) cannot be
implemented outside of the shell because they directly manipulate the shell itself. The history, getopts,
kill, or pwd builtins, among others, could be implemented in separate utilities, but they are more
convenient to use as builtin commands. All of the shell builtins are described in subsequent sections.

While executing commands is essential, most of the power (and complexity) of shells is due to their
embedded programming languages. Like any high-level language, the shell provides variables, flow control
constructs, quoting, and functions.

Shells offer features geared specifically for interactive use rather than to augment the programming language.
These interactive features include job control, command line editing, command history and aliases. Each of
these features is described in this manual.

Next: Basic Shell Features, Previous: Introduction, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

2 Definitions
These definitions are used throughout the remainder of this manual.

POSIX

A family of open system standards based on Unix. Bash is primarily concerned with the Shell and
Utilities portion of the POSIX 1003.1 standard.

blank

A space or tab character.

builtin

A command that is implemented internally by the shell itself, rather than by an executable program
somewhere in the file system.

control operator

A token that performs a control function. It is a newline or one of the following: ‘||’, ‘&&’, ‘&’,
‘;’, ‘;;’, ‘|’, ‘|&’, ‘(’, or ‘)’.

exit status

The value returned by a command to its caller. The value is restricted to eight bits, so the maximum
value is 255.

field

A unit of text that is the result of one of the shell expansions. After expansion, when executing a
command, the resulting fields are used as the command name and arguments.

filename
 A string of characters used to identify a file.

job

A set of processes comprising a pipeline, and any processes descended from it, that are all in the same
process group.

job control

A mechanism by which users can selectively stop (suspend) and restart (resume) execution of
processes.

metacharacter

A character that, when unquoted, separates words. A metacharacter is a blank or one of the following
characters: ‘|’, ‘&’, ‘;’, ‘(’, ‘)’, ‘<’, or ‘>’.

name

A word consisting solely of letters, numbers, and underscores, and beginning with a letter or
underscore. Names are used as shell variable and function names. Also referred to as an
identifier.

operator

A control operator or a redirection operator. See Redirections, for a list of redirection

operators. Operators contain at least one unquoted metacharacter.

process group

A collection of related processes each having the same process group ID.

process group ID

A unique identifier that represents a process group during its lifetime.

reserved word

A word that has a special meaning to the shell. Most reserved words introduce shell flow control
constructs, such as for and while.

return status

A synonym for exit status.

signal

A mechanism by which a process may be notified by the kernel of an event occurring in the system.

special builtin
 A shell builtin command that has been classified as special by the POSIX standard.

token

A sequence of characters considered a single unit by the shell. It is either a word or an operator.

word

A sequence of characters treated as a unit by the shell. Words may not include unquoted
metacharacters.

Next: Shell Builtin Commands, Previous: Definitions, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

3 Basic Shell Features

Bash is an acronym for ‘Bourne-Again SHell’. The Bourne shell is the traditional Unix shell originally
written by Stephen Bourne. All of the Bourne shell builtin commands are available in Bash, The rules for
evaluation and quoting are taken from the POSIX specification for the ‘standard’ Unix shell.

This chapter briefly summarizes the shell’s ‘building blocks’: commands, control structures, shell functions,
shell parameters, shell expansions, redirections, which are a way to direct input and output from and to
named files, and how the shell executes commands.

• Shell Syntax: What your input means to the shell.

• Shell Commands: The types of commands you can use.

• Shell Functions: Grouping commands by name.

• Shell Parameters: How the shell stores values.

• Shell Expansions: How Bash expands parameters and the various expansions
available.

• Redirections: A way to control where input and output go.

• Executing What happens when you run a command.

Commands:

• Shell Scripts: Executing files of shell commands.

Next: Shell Commands, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.1 Shell Syntax

• Shell The basic operation of the shell.
Operation:

• Quoting: How to remove the special meaning from

characters.

• Comments: How to specify comments.

When the shell reads input, it proceeds through a sequence of operations. If the input indicates the beginning
of a comment, the shell ignores the comment symbol (‘#’), and the rest of that line.

Otherwise, roughly speaking, the shell reads its input and divides the input into words and operators,
employing the quoting rules to select which meanings to assign various words and characters.

The shell then parses these tokens into commands and other constructs, removes the special meaning of
certain words or characters, expands others, redirects input and output as needed, executes the specified
command, waits for the command’s exit status, and makes that exit status available for further inspection or
processing.

Next: Quoting, Up: Shell Syntax [Contents][Index]

3.1.1 Shell Operation

The following is a brief description of the shell’s operation when it reads and executes a command. Basically,
the shell does the following:

1. Reads its input from a file (see Shell Scripts), from a string supplied as an argument to the -c
invocation option (see Invoking Bash), or from the user’s terminal.
2. Breaks the input into words and operators, obeying the quoting rules described in Quoting. These
tokens are separated by metacharacters. Alias expansion is performed by this step (see Aliases).
3. Parses the tokens into simple and compound commands (see Shell Commands).
4. Performs the various shell expansions (see Shell Expansions), breaking the expanded tokens into lists
of filenames (see Filename Expansion) and commands and arguments.
5. Performs any necessary redirections (see Redirections) and removes the redirection operators and
their operands from the argument list.
6. Executes the command (see Executing Commands).
7. Optionally waits for the command to complete and collects its exit status (see Exit Status).

Next: Comments, Previous: Shell Operation, Up: Shell Syntax [Contents][Index]

3.1.2 Quoting
• Escape How to remove the special meaning from a single character.
Character:

• Single Quotes: How to inhibit all interpretation of a sequence of characters.

• Double Quotes: How to suppress most of the interpretation of a sequence of

 characters.

• ANSI-C Quoting: How to expand ANSI-C sequences in quoted strings.

• Locale How to translate strings into different languages.

Translation:

Quoting is used to remove the special meaning of certain characters or words to the shell. Quoting can be
used to disable special treatment for special characters, to prevent reserved words from being recognized as
such, and to prevent parameter expansion.

Each of the shell metacharacters (see Definitions) has special meaning to the shell and must be quoted if it is
to represent itself. When the command history expansion facilities are being used (see History Interaction),
the history expansion character, usually ‘!’, must be quoted to prevent history expansion. See Bash History
Facilities, for more details concerning history expansion.

There are three quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single quotes, and double quotes.

Next: Single Quotes, Up: Quoting [Contents][Index]

3.1.2.1 Escape Character

A non-quoted backslash ‘\’ is the Bash escape character. It preserves the literal value of the next character
that follows, with the exception of newline. If a \newline pair appears, and the backslash itself is not
quoted, the \newline is treated as a line continuation (that is, it is removed from the input stream and
effectively ignored).

Next: Double Quotes, Previous: Escape Character, Up: Quoting [Contents][Index]

3.1.2.2 Single Quotes

Enclosing characters in single quotes (‘'’) preserves the literal value of each character within the quotes. A
single quote may not occur between single quotes, even when preceded by a backslash.

Next: ANSI-C Quoting, Previous: Single Quotes, Up: Quoting [Contents][Index]

3.1.2.3 Double Quotes

Enclosing characters in double quotes (‘"’) preserves the literal value of all characters within the quotes, with
the exception of ‘$’, ‘`’, ‘\’, and, when history expansion is enabled, ‘!’. The characters ‘$’ and ‘`’ retain
their special meaning within double quotes (see Shell Expansions). The backslash retains its special meaning
only when followed by one of the following characters: ‘$’, ‘`’, ‘"’, ‘\’, or newline. Within double
quotes, backslashes that are followed by one of these characters are removed. Backslashes preceding
characters without a special meaning are left unmodified. A double quote may be quoted within double
quotes by preceding it with a backslash. If enabled, history expansion will be performed unless an ‘!’
appearing in double quotes is escaped using a backslash. The backslash preceding the ‘!’ is not removed.
The special parameters ‘*’ and ‘@’ have special meaning when in double quotes (see Shell Parameter
Expansion).

Next: Locale Translation, Previous: Double Quotes, Up: Quoting [Contents][Index]

3.1.2.4 ANSI-C Quoting

Words of the form $'string' are treated specially. The word expands to string, with backslash-escaped
characters replaced as specified by the ANSI C standard. Backslash escape sequences, if present, are decoded
as follows:

\a

alert (bell)

\b

backspace

\e
\E

an escape character (not ANSI C)

\f

form feed

\n

newline

\r

carriage return

\t

horizontal tab

\v

vertical tab

\\

backslash

\'
 single quote

\"

double quote

\nnn

the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (one to three digits)

\xHH

the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits)

\uHHHH

the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHH (one to four hex
digits)

\UHHHHHHHH

the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHHHHHH (one to
eight hex digits)

\cx

a control-x character

The expanded result is single-quoted, as if the dollar sign had not been present.

Previous: ANSI-C Quoting, Up: Quoting [Contents][Index]

3.1.2.5 Locale-Specific Translation

A double-quoted string preceded by a dollar sign (‘$’) will cause the string to be translated according to the
current locale. If the current locale is C or POSIX, the dollar sign is ignored. If the string is translated and
replaced, the replacement is double-quoted.

Some systems use the message catalog selected by the LC_MESSAGES shell variable. Others create the name
of the message catalog from the value of the TEXTDOMAIN shell variable, possibly adding a suffix of ‘.mo’.
If you use the TEXTDOMAIN variable, you may need to set the TEXTDOMAINDIR variable to the location of
the message catalog files. Still others use both variables in this fashion:
TEXTDOMAINDIR/LC_MESSAGES/LC_MESSAGES/TEXTDOMAIN.mo.

Previous: Quoting, Up: Shell Syntax [Contents][Index]

3.1.3 Comments
In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the interactive_comments option to the
shopt builtin is enabled (see The Shopt Builtin), a word beginning with ‘#’ causes that word and all
remaining characters on that line to be ignored. An interactive shell without the
interactive_comments option enabled does not allow comments. The interactive_comments
option is on by default in interactive shells. See Interactive Shells, for a description of what makes a shell
interactive.

Next: Shell Functions, Previous: Shell Syntax, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.2 Shell Commands

A simple shell command such as echo a b c consists of the command itself followed by arguments,
separated by spaces.

More complex shell commands are composed of simple commands arranged together in a variety of ways: in
a pipeline in which the output of one command becomes the input of a second, in a loop or conditional
construct, or in some other grouping.

• Simple Commands: The most common type of command.

• Pipelines: Connecting the input and output of several

commands.

• Lists: How to execute commands sequentially.

• Compound Shell commands for control flow.

Commands:

• Coprocesses: Two-way communication between commands.

• GNU Parallel: Running commands in parallel.

Next: Pipelines, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.1 Simple Commands

A simple command is the kind of command encountered most often. It’s just a sequence of words separated
by blanks, terminated by one of the shell’s control operators (see Definitions). The first word generally
specifies a command to be executed, with the rest of the words being that command’s arguments.

The return status (see Exit Status) of a simple command is its exit status as provided by the POSIX 1003.1
waitpid function, or 128+n if the command was terminated by signal n.

Next: Lists, Previous: Simple Commands, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.2 Pipelines
A pipeline is a sequence of simple commands separated by one of the control operators ‘|’ or ‘|&’.

The format for a pipeline is

[time [-p]] [!] command1 [ [| or |&] command2 …]

The output of each command in the pipeline is connected via a pipe to the input of the next command. That
is, each command reads the previous command’s output. This connection is performed before any
redirections specified by the command.

If ‘|&’ is used, the standard error of command1 is connected to command2’s standard input through the pipe;
it is shorthand for 2>&1 |. This implicit redirection of the standard error is performed after any redirections
specified by the command.

The reserved word time causes timing statistics to be printed for the pipeline once it finishes. The statistics
currently consist of elapsed (wall-clock) time and user and system time consumed by the command’s
execution. The -p option changes the output format to that specified by POSIX. When the shell is in POSIX
mode (see Bash POSIX Mode), it does not recognize time as a reserved word if the next token begins with
a ‘-’. The TIMEFORMAT variable may be set to a format string that specifies how the timing information
should be displayed. See Bash Variables, for a description of the available formats. The use of time as a
reserved word permits the timing of shell builtins, shell functions, and pipelines. An external time command
cannot time these easily.

When the shell is in POSIX mode (see Bash POSIX Mode), time may be followed by a newline. In this case,
the shell displays the total user and system time consumed by the shell and its children. The TIMEFORMAT
variable may be used to specify the format of the time information.

If the pipeline is not executed asynchronously (see Lists), the shell waits for all commands in the pipeline to
complete.

Each command in a pipeline is executed in its own subshell (see Command Execution Environment). The
exit status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command in the pipeline, unless the pipefail option is
enabled (see The Set Builtin). If pipefail is enabled, the pipeline’s return status is the value of the last
(rightmost) command to exit with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands exit successfully. If the reserved
word ‘!’ precedes the pipeline, the exit status is the logical negation of the exit status as described above. The
shell waits for all commands in the pipeline to terminate before returning a value.

Next: Compound Commands, Previous: Pipelines, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.3 Lists of Commands

A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by one of the operators ‘;’, ‘&’, ‘&&’, or ‘||’, and
optionally terminated by one of ‘;’, ‘&’, or a newline.

Of these list operators, ‘&&’ and ‘||’ have equal precedence, followed by ‘;’ and ‘&’, which have equal
precedence.

A sequence of one or more newlines may appear in a list to delimit commands, equivalent to a semicolon.
If a command is terminated by the control operator ‘&’, the shell executes the command asynchronously in a
subshell. This is known as executing the command in the background. The shell does not wait for the
command to finish, and the return status is 0 (true). When job control is not active (see Job Control), the
standard input for asynchronous commands, in the absence of any explicit redirections, is redirected from
/dev/null.

Commands separated by a ‘;’ are executed sequentially; the shell waits for each command to terminate in
turn. The return status is the exit status of the last command executed.

AND and OR lists are sequences of one or more pipelines separated by the control operators ‘&&’ and ‘||’,
respectively. AND and OR lists are executed with left associativity.

An AND list has the form

command1 && command2

command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status of zero.

An OR list has the form

command1 || command2

command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns a non-zero exit status.

The return status of AND and OR lists is the exit status of the last command executed in the list.

Next: Coprocesses, Previous: Lists, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.4 Compound Commands

• Looping Constructs: Shell commands for iterative action.

• Conditional Shell commands for conditional

Constructs: execution.

• Command Grouping: Ways to group commands.

Compound commands are the shell programming constructs. Each construct begins with a reserved word or
control operator and is terminated by a corresponding reserved word or operator. Any redirections (see
Redirections) associated with a compound command apply to all commands within that compound command
unless explicitly overridden.

Bash provides looping constructs, conditional commands, and mechanisms to group commands and execute
them as a unit.

Next: Conditional Constructs, Up: Compound Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.4.1 Looping Constructs
Bash supports the following looping constructs.

Note that wherever a ‘;’ appears in the description of a command’s syntax, it may be replaced with one or
more newlines.

until

The syntax of the until command is:

until test-commands; do consequent-commands; done

Execute consequent-commands as long as test-commands has an exit status which is not zero. The
return status is the exit status of the last command executed in consequent-commands, or zero if none
was executed.

while

The syntax of the while command is:

while test-commands; do consequent-commands; done

Execute consequent-commands as long as test-commands has an exit status of zero. The return status is
the exit status of the last command executed in consequent-commands, or zero if none was executed.

for

The syntax of the for command is:

for name [ [in [words …] ] ; ] do commands; done

Expand words, and execute commands once for each member in the resultant list, with name bound to
the current member. If ‘in words’ is not present, the for command executes the commands once for
each positional parameter that is set, as if ‘in "$@"’ had been specified (see Special Parameters). The
return status is the exit status of the last command that executes. If there are no items in the expansion
of words, no commands are executed, and the return status is zero.

An alternate form of the for command is also supported:

for (( expr1 ; expr2 ; expr3 )) ; do commands ; done

First, the arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated according to the rules described below (see Shell
Arithmetic). The arithmetic expression expr2 is then evaluated repeatedly until it evaluates to zero.
Each time expr2 evaluates to a non-zero value, commands are executed and the arithmetic expression
expr3 is evaluated. If any expression is omitted, it behaves as if it evaluates to 1. The return value is the
exit status of the last command in commands that is executed, or false if any of the expressions is
invalid.

The break and continue builtins (see Bourne Shell Builtins) may be used to control loop execution.
Next: Command Grouping, Previous: Looping Constructs, Up: Compound Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.4.2 Conditional Constructs

if

The syntax of the if command is:

if test-commands; then
consequent-commands;
[elif more-test-commands; then
more-consequents;]
[else alternate-consequents;]
fi

The test-commands list is executed, and if its return status is zero, the consequent-commands list is
executed. If test-commands returns a non-zero status, each elif list is executed in turn, and if its exit
status is zero, the corresponding more-consequents is executed and the command completes. If ‘else
alternate-consequents’ is present, and the final command in the final if or elif clause has a
non-zero exit status, then alternate-consequents is executed. The return status is the exit status of the
last command executed, or zero if no condition tested true.

case

The syntax of the case command is:

case word in [ [(] pattern [| pattern]…) command-list ;;]… esac

case will selectively execute the command-list corresponding to the first pattern that matches word. If
the shell option nocasematch (see the description of shopt in The Shopt Builtin) is enabled, the
match is performed without regard to the case of alphabetic characters. The ‘|’ is used to separate
multiple patterns, and the ‘)’ operator terminates a pattern list. A list of patterns and an associated
command-list is known as a clause.

Each clause must be terminated with ‘;;’, ‘;&’, or ‘;;&’. The word undergoes tilde expansion,
parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal before matching
is attempted. Each pattern undergoes tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution, and
arithmetic expansion.

There may be an arbitrary number of case clauses, each terminated by a ‘;;’, ‘;&’, or ‘;;&’. The
first pattern that matches determines the command-list that is executed.

Here is an example using case in a script that could be used to describe one interesting feature of an
animal:

echo -n "Enter the name of an animal: "

read ANIMAL
echo -n "The $ANIMAL has "
case $ANIMAL in
horse | dog | cat) echo -n "four";;
man | kangaroo ) echo -n "two";;
*) echo -n "an unknown number of";;
esac
echo " legs."
 If the ‘;;’ operator is used, no subsequent matches are attempted after the first pattern match. Using
‘;&’ in place of ‘;;’ causes execution to continue with the command-list associated with the next
clause, if any. Using ‘;;&’ in place of ‘;;’ causes the shell to test the patterns in the next clause, if any,
and execute any associated command-list on a successful match.

The return status is zero if no pattern is matched. Otherwise, the return status is the exit status of the
command-list executed.

select

The select construct allows the easy generation of menus. It has almost the same syntax as the for
command:

select name [in words …]; do commands; done

The list of words following in is expanded, generating a list of items. The set of expanded words is
printed on the standard error output stream, each preceded by a number. If the ‘in words’ is omitted,
the positional parameters are printed, as if ‘in "$@"’ had been specified. The PS3 prompt is then
displayed and a line is read from the standard input. If the line consists of a number corresponding to
one of the displayed words, then the value of name is set to that word. If the line is empty, the words
and prompt are displayed again. If EOF is read, the select command completes. Any other value
read causes name to be set to null. The line read is saved in the variable REPLY.

The commands are executed after each selection until a break command is executed, at which point
the select command completes.

Here is an example that allows the user to pick a filename from the current directory, and displays the
name and index of the file selected.

select fname in *;
do
echo you picked $fname \($REPLY\)
break;
done

((…))

(( expression ))

The arithmetic expression is evaluated according to the rules described below (see Shell Arithmetic). If
the value of the expression is non-zero, the return status is 0; otherwise the return status is 1. This is
exactly equivalent to

let "expression"

See Bash Builtins, for a full description of the let builtin.

[[…]]

[[ expression ]]

Return a status of 0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the conditional expression expression.

Expressions are composed of the primaries described below in Bash Conditional Expressions. Word
 splitting and filename expansion are not performed on the words between the ‘[[’ and ‘]]’; tilde
expansion, parameter and variable expansion, arithmetic expansion, command substitution, process
substitution, and quote removal are performed. Conditional operators such as ‘-f’ must be unquoted to
be recognized as primaries.

When used with ‘[[’, the ‘<’ and ‘>’ operators sort lexicographically using the current locale.

When the ‘==’ and ‘!=’ operators are used, the string to the right of the operator is considered a pattern
and matched according to the rules described below in Pattern Matching. If the shell option
nocasematch (see the description of shopt in The Shopt Builtin) is enabled, the match is
performed without regard to the case of alphabetic characters. The return value is 0 if the string
matches (‘==’) or does not match (‘!=’)the pattern, and 1 otherwise. Any part of the pattern may be
quoted to force it to be matched as a string.

An additional binary operator, ‘=~’, is available, with the same precedence as ‘==’ and ‘!=’. When it is
used, the string to the right of the operator is considered an extended regular expression and matched
accordingly (as in regex3)). The return value is 0 if the string matches the pattern, and 1 otherwise. If
the regular expression is syntactically incorrect, the conditional expression’s return value is 2. If the
shell option nocasematch (see the description of shopt in The Shopt Builtin) is enabled, the match
is performed without regard to the case of alphabetic characters. Any part of the pattern may be quoted
to force it to be matched as a string. Substrings matched by parenthesized subexpressions within the
regular expression are saved in the array variable BASH_REMATCH. The element of BASH_REMATCH
with index 0 is the portion of the string matching the entire regular expression. The element of
BASH_REMATCH with index n is the portion of the string matching the nth parenthesized
subexpression.

Expressions may be combined using the following operators, listed in decreasing order of precedence:

( expression )

Returns the value of expression. This may be used to override the normal precedence of
operators.

! expression

True if expression is false.

expression1 && expression2

True if both expression1 and expression2 are true.

expression1 || expression2

True if either expression1 or expression2 is true.

The && and || operators do not evaluate expression2 if the value of expression1 is sufficient to
determine the return value of the entire conditional expression.

Previous: Conditional Constructs, Up: Compound Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.4.3 Grouping Commands
Bash provides two ways to group a list of commands to be executed as a unit. When commands are grouped,
redirections may be applied to the entire command list. For example, the output of all the commands in the
list may be redirected to a single stream.

()

( list )

Placing a list of commands between parentheses causes a subshell environment to be created (see
Command Execution Environment), and each of the commands in list to be executed in that subshell.
Since the list is executed in a subshell, variable assignments do not remain in effect after the subshell
completes.

{}

{ list; }

Placing a list of commands between curly braces causes the list to be executed in the current shell
context. No subshell is created. The semicolon (or newline) following list is required.

In addition to the creation of a subshell, there is a subtle difference between these two constructs due to
historical reasons. The braces are reserved words, so they must be separated from the list by blanks or
other shell metacharacters. The parentheses are operators, and are recognized as separate tokens by the
shell even if they are not separated from the list by whitespace.

The exit status of both of these constructs is the exit status of list.

Next: GNU Parallel, Previous: Compound Commands, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.5 Coprocesses
A coprocess is a shell command preceded by the coproc reserved word. A coprocess is executed
asynchronously in a subshell, as if the command had been terminated with the ‘&’ control operator, with a
two-way pipe established between the executing shell and the coprocess.

The format for a coprocess is:

coproc [NAME] command [redirections]

This creates a coprocess named NAME. If NAME is not supplied, the default name is COPROC. NAME must
not be supplied if command is a simple command (see Simple Commands); otherwise, it is interpreted as the
first word of the simple command.

When the coproc is executed, the shell creates an array variable (see Arrays) named NAME in the context of
the executing shell. The standard output of command is connected via a pipe to a file descriptor in the
executing shell, and that file descriptor is assigned to NAME[0]. The standard input of command is connected
via a pipe to a file descriptor in the executing shell, and that file descriptor is assigned to NAME[1]. This pipe
is established before any redirections specified by the command (see Redirections). The file descriptors can
be utilized as arguments to shell commands and redirections using standard word expansions.
The process ID of the shell spawned to execute the coprocess is available as the value of the variable
NAME_PID. The wait builtin command may be used to wait for the coprocess to terminate.

The return status of a coprocess is the exit status of command.

Previous: Coprocesses, Up: Shell Commands [Contents][Index]

3.2.6 GNU Parallel

GNU Parallel, as its name suggests, can be used to build and run commands in parallel. You may run the
same command with different arguments, whether they are filenames, usernames, hostnames, or lines read
from files.

For a complete description, refer to the GNU Parallel documentation. A few examples should provide a brief
introduction to its use.

For example, it is easy to prefix each line in a text file with a specified string:

cat file | parallel -k echo prefix_string

The -k option is required to preserve the lines’ order.

Similarly, you can append a specified string to each line in a text file:

cat file | parallel -k echo {} append_string

You can use Parallel to move files from the current directory when the number of files is too large to process
with one mv invocation:

ls | parallel mv {} destdir

As you can see, the {} is replaced with each line read from standard input. This will run as many mv
commands as there are files in the current directory. You can emulate a parallel xargs by adding the -X
option:

ls | parallel -X mv {} destdir

GNU Parallel can replace certain common idioms that operate on lines read from a file (in this case,
filenames):

for x in $(cat list); do

do-something1 $x config-$x
do-something2 < $x
done | process-output

with a more compact syntax reminiscent of lambdas:

cat list | parallel "do-something1 {} config-{} ; do-something2 < {}" | process-output

Parallel provides a built-in mechanism to remove filename extensions, which lends itself to batch file
transformations or renaming:
ls *.gz | parallel -j+0 "zcat {} | bzip2 >{.}.bz2 && rm {}"

This will recompress all files in the current directory with names ending in .gz using bzip2, running one job
per CPU (-j+0) in parallel.

If a command generates output, you may want to preserve the input order in the output. For instance, the
following command

{ echo foss.org.my ; echo debian.org; echo freenetproject.org; } | parallel traceroute

will display as output the traceroute invocation that finishes first. Using the -k option, as we saw above

{ echo foss.org.my ; echo debian.org; echo freenetproject.org; } | parallel -k

traceroute

will ensure that the output of traceroute foss.org.my is displayed first.

Next: Shell Parameters, Previous: Shell Commands, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.3 Shell Functions

Shell functions are a way to group commands for later execution using a single name for the group. They are
executed just like a "regular" command. When the name of a shell function is used as a simple command
name, the list of commands associated with that function name is executed. Shell functions are executed in
the current shell context; no new process is created to interpret them.

Functions are declared using this syntax:

name () compound-command [ redirections ]

or

function name [()] compound-command [ redirections ]

This defines a shell function named name. The reserved word function is optional. If the function
reserved word is supplied, the parentheses are optional. The body of the function is the compound command
compound-command (see Compound Commands). That command is usually a list enclosed between { and },
but may be any compound command listed above. compound-command is executed whenever name is
specified as the name of a command. Any redirections (see Redirections) associated with the shell function
are performed when the function is executed.

A function definition may be deleted using the -f option to the unset builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins).

The exit status of a function definition is zero unless a syntax error occurs or a readonly function with the
same name already exists. When executed, the exit status of a function is the exit status of the last command
executed in the body.

Note that for historical reasons, in the most common usage the curly braces that surround the body of the
function must be separated from the body by blanks or newlines. This is because the braces are reserved
words and are only recognized as such when they are separated from the command list by whitespace or
another shell metacharacter. Also, when using the braces, the list must be terminated by a semicolon, a ‘&’, or
a newline.
When a function is executed, the arguments to the function become the positional parameters during its
execution (see Positional Parameters). The special parameter ‘#’ that expands to the number of positional
parameters is updated to reflect the change. Special parameter 0 is unchanged. The first element of the
FUNCNAME variable is set to the name of the function while the function is executing.

All other aspects of the shell execution environment are identical between a function and its caller with these
exceptions: the DEBUG and RETURN traps are not inherited unless the function has been given the trace
attribute using the declare builtin or the -o functrace option has been enabled with the set builtin,
(in which case all functions inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps), and the ERR trap is not inherited unless
the -o errtrace shell option has been enabled. See Bourne Shell Builtins, for the description of the
trap builtin.

The FUNCNEST variable, if set to a numeric value greater than 0, defines a maximum function nesting level.
Function invocations that exceed the limit cause the entire command to abort.

If the builtin command return is executed in a function, the function completes and execution resumes
with the next command after the function call. Any command associated with the RETURN trap is executed
before execution resumes. When a function completes, the values of the positional parameters and the special
parameter ‘#’ are restored to the values they had prior to the function’s execution. If a numeric argument is
given to return, that is the function’s return status; otherwise the function’s return status is the exit status
of the last command executed before the return.

Variables local to the function may be declared with the local builtin. These variables are visible only to
the function and the commands it invokes.

Function names and definitions may be listed with the -f option to the declare or typeset builtin
commands (see Bash Builtins). The -F option to declare or typeset will list the function names only
(and optionally the source file and line number, if the extdebug shell option is enabled). Functions may be
exported so that subshells automatically have them defined with the -f option to the export builtin (see
Bourne Shell Builtins). Note that shell functions and variables with the same name may result in multiple
identically-named entries in the environment passed to the shell’s children. Care should be taken in cases
where this may cause a problem.

Functions may be recursive. The FUNCNEST variable may be used to limit the depth of the function call
stack and restrict the number of function invocations. By default, no limit is placed on the number of
recursive calls.

Next: Shell Expansions, Previous: Shell Functions, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.4 Shell Parameters

• Positional The shell’s command-line arguments.
Parameters:

• Special Parameters: Parameters denoted by special

characters.

A parameter is an entity that stores values. It can be a name, a number, or one of the special characters listed
below. A variable is a parameter denoted by a name. A variable has a value and zero or more attributes.
Attributes are assigned using the declare builtin command (see the description of the declare builtin in
Bash Builtins).

A parameter is set if it has been assigned a value. The null string is a valid value. Once a variable is set, it
may be unset only by using the unset builtin command.

A variable may be assigned to by a statement of the form

name=[value]

If value is not given, the variable is assigned the null string. All values undergo tilde expansion, parameter
and variable expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal (detailed below). If
the variable has its integer attribute set, then value is evaluated as an arithmetic expression even if the $
((…)) expansion is not used (see Arithmetic Expansion). Word splitting is not performed, with the
exception of "$@" as explained below. Filename expansion is not performed. Assignment statements may
also appear as arguments to the alias, declare, typeset, export, readonly, and local builtin
commands.

In the context where an assignment statement is assigning a value to a shell variable or array index (see
Arrays), the ‘+=’ operator can be used to append to or add to the variable’s previous value. When ‘+=’ is
applied to a variable for which the integer attribute has been set, value is evaluated as an arithmetic
expression and added to the variable’s current value, which is also evaluated. When ‘+=’ is applied to an
array variable using compound assignment (see Arrays), the variable’s value is not unset (as it is when using
‘=’), and new values are appended to the array beginning at one greater than the array’s maximum index (for
indexed arrays), or added as additional key-value pairs in an associative array. When applied to a string-
valued variable, value is expanded and appended to the variable’s value.

Next: Special Parameters, Up: Shell Parameters [Contents][Index]

3.4.1 Positional Parameters

A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by one or more digits, other than the single digit 0. Positional
parameters are assigned from the shell’s arguments when it is invoked, and may be reassigned using the set
builtin command. Positional parameter N may be referenced as ${N}, or as $N when N consists of a single
digit. Positional parameters may not be assigned to with assignment statements. The set and shift builtins
are used to set and unset them (see Shell Builtin Commands). The positional parameters are temporarily
replaced when a shell function is executed (see Shell Functions).

When a positional parameter consisting of more than a single digit is expanded, it must be enclosed in braces.

Previous: Positional Parameters, Up: Shell Parameters [Contents][Index]

3.4.2 Special Parameters

The shell treats several parameters specially. These parameters may only be referenced; assignment to them
is not allowed.

*
 Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. When the expansion occurs within double
quotes, it expands to a single word with the value of each parameter separated by the first character of
the IFS special variable. That is, "$*" is equivalent to "$1c$2c…", where c is the first character of
the value of the IFS variable. If IFS is unset, the parameters are separated by spaces. If IFS is null,
the parameters are joined without intervening separators.

Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. When the expansion occurs within double
quotes, each parameter expands to a separate word. That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" …. If
the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word, the expansion of the first parameter is joined with
the beginning part of the original word, and the expansion of the last parameter is joined with the last
part of the original word. When there are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to nothing
(i.e., they are removed).

Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal.

Expands to the exit status of the most recently executed foreground pipeline.

(A hyphen.) Expands to the current option flags as specified upon invocation, by the set builtin
command, or those set by the shell itself (such as the -i option).

Expands to the process ID of the shell. In a () subshell, it expands to the process ID of the invoking
shell, not the subshell.

Expands to the process ID of the most recently executed background (asynchronous) command.

Expands to the name of the shell or shell script. This is set at shell initialization. If Bash is invoked with
a file of commands (see Shell Scripts), $0 is set to the name of that file. If Bash is started with the -c
option (see Invoking Bash), then $0 is set to the first argument after the string to be executed, if one is
present. Otherwise, it is set to the filename used to invoke Bash, as given by argument zero.

(An underscore.) At shell startup, set to the absolute pathname used to invoke the shell or shell script
being executed as passed in the environment or argument list. Subsequently, expands to the last
argument to the previous command, after expansion. Also set to the full pathname used to invoke each
command executed and placed in the environment exported to that command. When checking mail, this
parameter holds the name of the mail file.
Next: Redirections, Previous: Shell Parameters, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.5 Shell Expansions

Expansion is performed on the command line after it has been split into tokens. There are seven kinds of
expansion performed:

• brace expansion
• tilde expansion
• parameter and variable expansion
• command substitution
• arithmetic expansion
• word splitting
• filename expansion

• Brace Expansion: Expansion of expressions within braces.

• Tilde Expansion: Expansion of the ~ character.

• Shell Parameter How Bash expands variables to their values.

Expansion:

• Command Substitution: Using the output of a command as an argument.

• Arithmetic Expansion: How to use arithmetic in shell expansions.

• Process Substitution: A way to write and read to and from a command.

• Word Splitting: How the results of expansion are split into separate
arguments.

• Filename Expansion: A shorthand for specifying filenames matching patterns.

• Quote Removal: How and when quote characters are removed from words.

The order of expansions is: brace expansion, tilde expansion, parameter, variable, and arithmetic expansion
and command substitution (done in a left-to-right fashion), word splitting, and filename expansion.

On systems that can support it, there is an additional expansion available: process substitution. This is
performed at the same time as parameter, variable, and arithmetic expansion and command substitution.

Only brace expansion, word splitting, and filename expansion can change the number of words of the
expansion; other expansions expand a single word to a single word. The only exceptions to this are the
expansions of "$@" (see Special Parameters) and "${name[@]}" (see Arrays).

After all expansions, quote removal (see Quote Removal) is performed.

Next: Tilde Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.1 Brace Expansion

Brace expansion is a mechanism by which arbitrary strings may be generated. This mechanism is similar to
filename expansion (see Filename Expansion), but the file names generated need not exist. Patterns to be
brace expanded take the form of an optional preamble, followed by either a series of comma-separated
strings or a seqeunce expression between a pair of braces, followed by an optional postscript. The preamble
is prefixed to each string contained within the braces, and the postscript is then appended to each resulting
string, expanding left to right.

Brace expansions may be nested. The results of each expanded string are not sorted; left to right order is
preserved. For example,

bash$ echo a{d,c,b}e

ade ace abe

A sequence expression takes the form {x..y[..incr]}, where x and y are either integers or single
characters, and incr, an optional increment, is an integer. When integers are supplied, the expression expands
to each number between x and y, inclusive. Supplied integers may be prefixed with ‘0’ to force each term to
have the same width. When either x or y begins with a zero, the shell attempts to force all generated terms to
contain the same number of digits, zero-padding where necessary. When characters are supplied, the
expression expands to each character lexicographically between x and y, inclusive. Note that both x and y
must be of the same type. When the increment is supplied, it is used as the difference between each term. The
default increment is 1 or -1 as appropriate.

Brace expansion is performed before any other expansions, and any characters special to other expansions
are preserved in the result. It is strictly textual. Bash does not apply any syntactic interpretation to the context
of the expansion or the text between the braces. To avoid conflicts with parameter expansion, the string ‘${’
is not considered eligible for brace expansion.

A correctly-formed brace expansion must contain unquoted opening and closing braces, and at least one
unquoted comma or a valid sequence expression. Any incorrectly formed brace expansion is left unchanged.

A { or ‘,’ may be quoted with a backslash to prevent its being considered part of a brace expression. To
avoid conflicts with parameter expansion, the string ‘${’ is not considered eligible for brace expansion.

This construct is typically used as shorthand when the common prefix of the strings to be generated is longer
than in the above example:

mkdir /usr/local/src/bash/{old,new,dist,bugs}

or

chown root /usr/{ucb/{ex,edit},lib/{ex?.?*,how_ex}}

Next: Shell Parameter Expansion, Previous: Brace Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.2 Tilde Expansion

If a word begins with an unquoted tilde character (‘~’), all of the characters up to the first unquoted slash (or
all characters, if there is no unquoted slash) are considered a tilde-prefix. If none of the characters in the tilde-
prefix are quoted, the characters in the tilde-prefix following the tilde are treated as a possible login name. If
this login name is the null string, the tilde is replaced with the value of the HOME shell variable. If HOME is
unset, the home directory of the user executing the shell is substituted instead. Otherwise, the tilde-prefix is
replaced with the home directory associated with the specified login name.

If the tilde-prefix is ‘~+’, the value of the shell variable PWD replaces the tilde-prefix. If the tilde-prefix is
‘~-’, the value of the shell variable OLDPWD, if it is set, is substituted.

If the characters following the tilde in the tilde-prefix consist of a number N, optionally prefixed by a ‘+’ or a
‘-’, the tilde-prefix is replaced with the corresponding element from the directory stack, as it would be
displayed by the dirs builtin invoked with the characters following tilde in the tilde-prefix as an argument
(see The Directory Stack). If the tilde-prefix, sans the tilde, consists of a number without a leading ‘+’ or ‘-’,
‘+’ is assumed.

If the login name is invalid, or the tilde expansion fails, the word is left unchanged.

Each variable assignment is checked for unquoted tilde-prefixes immediately following a ‘:’ or the first ‘=’.
In these cases, tilde expansion is also performed. Consequently, one may use file names with tildes in
assignments to PATH, MAILPATH, and CDPATH, and the shell assigns the expanded value.

The following table shows how Bash treats unquoted tilde-prefixes:

The value of $HOME

~/foo

$HOME/foo

~fred/foo

The subdirectory foo of the home directory of the user fred

~+/foo

$PWD/foo

~-/foo

${OLDPWD-'~-'}/foo

~N

The string that would be displayed by ‘dirs +N’

~+N

The string that would be displayed by ‘dirs +N’

~-N

The string that would be displayed by ‘dirs -N’

Next: Command Substitution, Previous: Tilde Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.3 Shell Parameter Expansion

The ‘$’ character introduces parameter expansion, command substitution, or arithmetic expansion. The
parameter name or symbol to be expanded may be enclosed in braces, which are optional but serve to protect
the variable to be expanded from characters immediately following it which could be interpreted as part of
the name.

When braces are used, the matching ending brace is the first ‘}’ not escaped by a backslash or within a
quoted string, and not within an embedded arithmetic expansion, command substitution, or parameter
expansion.

The basic form of parameter expansion is ${parameter}. The value of parameter is substituted. The braces
are required when parameter is a positional parameter with more than one digit, or when parameter is
followed by a character that is not to be interpreted as part of its name.

If the first character of parameter is an exclamation point (!), a level of variable indirection is introduced.
Bash uses the value of the variable formed from the rest of parameter as the name of the variable; this
variable is then expanded and that value is used in the rest of the substitution, rather than the value of
parameter itself. This is known as indirect expansion. The exceptions to this are the expansions of $
{!prefix
} and ${!name[@]} described below. The exclamation point must immediately follow the left brace in order
to introduce indirection.

In each of the cases below, word is subject to tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic expansion.

When not performing substring expansion, using the form described below, Bash tests for a parameter that is
unset or null. Omitting the colon results in a test only for a parameter that is unset. Put another way, if the
colon is included, the operator tests for both parameter’s existence and that its value is not null; if the colon
is omitted, the operator tests only for existence.

${parameter:-word}

If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word is substituted. Otherwise, the value of parameter is
substituted.

${parameter:=word}

If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word is assigned to parameter. The value of parameter is
then substituted. Positional parameters and special parameters may not be assigned to in this way.

${parameter:?word}

If parameter is null or unset, the expansion of word (or a message to that effect if word is not present)
 is written to the standard error and the shell, if it is not interactive, exits. Otherwise, the value of
parameter is substituted.

${parameter:+word}

If parameter is null or unset, nothing is substituted, otherwise the expansion of word is substituted.

${parameter:offset}
${parameter:offset:length}

Expands to up to length characters of parameter starting at the character specified by offset. If length is
omitted, expands to the substring of parameter starting at the character specified by offset. length and
offset are arithmetic expressions (see Shell Arithmetic). This is referred to as Substring Expansion.

If offset evaluates to a number less than zero, the value is used as an offset from the end of the value of
parameter. If length evaluates to a number less than zero, and parameter is not ‘@’ and not an indexed
or associative array, it is interpreted as an offset from the end of the value of parameter rather than a
number of characters, and the expansion is the characters between the two offsets. If parameter is ‘@’,
the result is length positional parameters beginning at offset. If parameter is an indexed array name
subscripted by ‘@’ or ‘*’, the result is the length members of the array beginning with $
{parameter[offset]}. A negative offset is taken relative to one greater than the maximum index
of the specified array. Substring expansion applied to an associative array produces undefined results.

Note that a negative offset must be separated from the colon by at least one space to avoid being
confused with the ‘:-’ expansion. Substring indexing is zero-based unless the positional parameters
are used, in which case the indexing starts at 1 by default. If offset is 0, and the positional parameters
are used, $@ is prefixed to the list.

${!prefix*}
${!prefix@}

Expands to the names of variables whose names begin with prefix, separated by the first character of
the IFS special variable. When ‘@’ is used and the expansion appears within double quotes, each
variable name expands to a separate word.

${!name[@]}
${!name[*]}

If name is an array variable, expands to the list of array indices (keys) assigned in name. If name is not
an array, expands to 0 if name is set and null otherwise. When ‘@’ is used and the expansion appears
within double quotes, each key expands to a separate word.

${#parameter}

The length in characters of the expanded value of parameter is substituted. If parameter is ‘*’ or ‘@’,
the value substituted is the number of positional parameters. If parameter is an array name subscripted
by ‘*’ or ‘@’, the value substituted is the number of elements in the array.

${parameter#word}
${parameter##word}
 The word is expanded to produce a pattern just as in filename expansion (see Filename Expansion). If
the pattern matches the beginning of the expanded value of parameter, then the result of the expansion
is the expanded value of parameter with the shortest matching pattern (the ‘#’ case) or the longest
matching pattern (the ‘##’ case) deleted. If parameter is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the pattern removal operation is
applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list. If parameter is an
array variable subscripted with ‘@’ or ‘*’, the pattern removal operation is applied to each member of
the array in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list.

${parameter%word}
${parameter%%word}

The word is expanded to produce a pattern just as in filename expansion. If the pattern matches a
trailing portion of the expanded value of parameter, then the result of the expansion is the value of
parameter with the shortest matching pattern (the ‘%’ case) or the longest matching pattern (the ‘%%’
case) deleted. If parameter is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the pattern removal operation is applied to each positional
parameter in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list. If parameter is an array variable subscripted
with ‘@’ or ‘*’, the pattern removal operation is applied to each member of the array in turn, and the
expansion is the resultant list.

${parameter/pattern/string}

The pattern is expanded to produce a pattern just as in filename expansion. Parameter is expanded and
the longest match of pattern against its value is replaced with string. If pattern begins with ‘/’, all
matches of pattern are replaced with string. Normally only the first match is replaced. If pattern begins
with ‘#’, it must match at the beginning of the expanded value of parameter. If pattern begins with ‘%’,
it must match at the end of the expanded value of parameter. If string is null, matches of pattern are
deleted and the / following pattern may be omitted. If parameter is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the substitution
operation is applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list. If
parameter is an array variable subscripted with ‘@’ or ‘*’, the substitution operation is applied to each
member of the array in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list.

${parameter^pattern}
${parameter^^pattern}
${parameter,pattern}
${parameter,,pattern}

This expansion modifies the case of alphabetic characters in parameter. The pattern is expanded to
produce a pattern just as in filename expansion. The ‘^’ operator converts lowercase letters matching
pattern to uppercase; the ‘,’ operator converts matching uppercase letters to lowercase. The ‘^^’ and
‘,,’ expansions convert each matched character in the expanded value; the ‘^’ and ‘,’ expansions
match and convert only the first character in the expanded value. If pattern is omitted, it is treated like
a ‘?’, which matches every character. If parameter is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the case modification operation is
applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list. If parameter is an
array variable subscripted with ‘@’ or ‘*’, the case modification operation is applied to each member of
the array in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list.

Next: Arithmetic Expansion, Previous: Shell Parameter Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]
3.5.4 Command Substitution
Command substitution allows the output of a command to replace the command itself. Command substitution
occurs when a command is enclosed as follows:

$(command)

or

`command`

Bash performs the expansion by executing command and replacing the command substitution with the
standard output of the command, with any trailing newlines deleted. Embedded newlines are not deleted, but
they may be removed during word splitting. The command substitution $(cat file) can be replaced by
the equivalent but faster $(< file).

When the old-style backquote form of substitution is used, backslash retains its literal meaning except when
followed by ‘$’, ‘`’, or ‘\’. The first backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command
substitution. When using the $(command) form, all characters between the parentheses make up the
command; none are treated specially.

Command substitutions may be nested. To nest when using the backquoted form, escape the inner backquotes
with backslashes.

If the substitution appears within double quotes, word splitting and filename expansion are not performed on
the results.

Next: Process Substitution, Previous: Command Substitution, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.5 Arithmetic Expansion

Arithmetic expansion allows the evaluation of an arithmetic expression and the substitution of the result. The
format for arithmetic expansion is:

$(( expression ))

The expression is treated as if it were within double quotes, but a double quote inside the parentheses is not
treated specially. All tokens in the expression undergo parameter expansion, command substitution, and quote
removal. Arithmetic expansions may be nested.

The evaluation is performed according to the rules listed below (see Shell Arithmetic). If the expression is
invalid, Bash prints a message indicating failure to the standard error and no substitution occurs.

Next: Word Splitting, Previous: Arithmetic Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.6 Process Substitution

Process substitution is supported on systems that support named pipes (FIFOs) or the /dev/fd method of
naming open files. It takes the form of
<(list)

or

>(list)

The process list is run with its input or output connected to a FIFO or some file in /dev/fd. The name of
this file is passed as an argument to the current command as the result of the expansion. If the >(list)
form is used, writing to the file will provide input for list. If the <(list) form is used, the file passed as an
argument should be read to obtain the output of list. Note that no space may appear between the < or > and
the left parenthesis, otherwise the construct would be interpreted as a redirection.

When available, process substitution is performed simultaneously with parameter and variable expansion,
command substitution, and arithmetic expansion.

Next: Filename Expansion, Previous: Process Substitution, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.7 Word Splitting

The shell scans the results of parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion that did
not occur within double quotes for word splitting.

The shell treats each character of $IFS as a delimiter, and splits the results of the other expansions into
words on these characters. If IFS is unset, or its value is exactly <space><tab><newline>, the default,
then sequences of <space>, <tab>, and <newline> at the beginning and end of the results of the
previous expansions are ignored, and any sequence of IFS characters not at the beginning or end serves to
delimit words. If IFS has a value other than the default, then sequences of the whitespace characters space
and tab are ignored at the beginning and end of the word, as long as the whitespace character is in the value
of IFS (an IFS whitespace character). Any character in IFS that is not IFS whitespace, along with any
adjacent IFS whitespace characters, delimits a field. A sequence of IFS whitespace characters is also treated
as a delimiter. If the value of IFS is null, no word splitting occurs.

Explicit null arguments ("" or '') are retained. Unquoted implicit null arguments, resulting from the
expansion of parameters that have no values, are removed. If a parameter with no value is expanded within
double quotes, a null argument results and is retained.

Note that if no expansion occurs, no splitting is performed.

Next: Quote Removal, Previous: Word Splitting, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.8 Filename Expansion

• Pattern How the shell matches
Matching: patterns.

After word splitting, unless the -f option has been set (see The Set Builtin), Bash scans each word for the
characters ‘*’, ‘?’, and ‘[’. If one of these characters appears, then the word is regarded as a pattern, and
replaced with an alphabetically sorted list of file names matching the pattern. If no matching file names are
found, and the shell option nullglob is disabled, the word is left unchanged. If the nullglob option is
set, and no matches are found, the word is removed. If the failglob shell option is set, and no matches are
found, an error message is printed and the command is not executed. If the shell option nocaseglob is
enabled, the match is performed without regard to the case of alphabetic characters.

When a pattern is used for filename expansion, the character ‘.’ at the start of a filename or immediately
following a slash must be matched explicitly, unless the shell option dotglob is set. When matching a file
name, the slash character must always be matched explicitly. In other cases, the ‘.’ character is not treated
specially.

See the description of shopt in The Shopt Builtin, for a description of the nocaseglob, nullglob,
failglob, and dotglob options.

The GLOBIGNORE shell variable may be used to restrict the set of filenames matching a pattern. If
GLOBIGNORE is set, each matching filename that also matches one of the patterns in GLOBIGNORE is
removed from the list of matches. The filenames . and .. are always ignored when GLOBIGNORE is set and
not null. However, setting GLOBIGNORE to a non-null value has the effect of enabling the dotglob shell
option, so all other filenames beginning with a ‘.’ will match. To get the old behavior of ignoring filenames
beginning with a ‘.’, make ‘.*’ one of the patterns in GLOBIGNORE. The dotglob option is disabled
when GLOBIGNORE is unset.

Up: Filename Expansion [Contents][Index]

3.5.8.1 Pattern Matching

Any character that appears in a pattern, other than the special pattern characters described below, matches
itself. The NUL character may not occur in a pattern. A backslash escapes the following character; the
escaping backslash is discarded when matching. The special pattern characters must be quoted if they are to
be matched literally.

The special pattern characters have the following meanings:

Matches any string, including the null string. When the globstar shell option is enabled, and ‘*’ is
used in a filename expansion context, two adjacent ‘*’s used as a single pattern will match all files and
zero or more directories and subdirectories. If followed by a ‘/’, two adjacent ‘*’s will match only
directories and subdirectories.

Matches any single character.

[…]

Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated by a hyphen denotes a range
expression; any character that sorts between those two characters, inclusive, using the current locale’s
collating sequence and character set, is matched. If the first character following the ‘[’ is a ‘!’ or a ‘^’
then any character not enclosed is matched. A ‘-’ may be matched by including it as the first or last
 character in the set. A ‘]’ may be matched by including it as the first character in the set. The sorting
order of characters in range expressions is determined by the current locale and the value of the
LC_COLLATE shell variable, if set.

For example, in the default C locale, ‘[a-dx-z]’ is equivalent to ‘[abcdxyz]’. Many locales sort
characters in dictionary order, and in these locales ‘[a-dx-z]’ is typically not equivalent to
‘[abcdxyz]’; it might be equivalent to ‘[aBbCcDdxXyYz]’, for example. To obtain the traditional
interpretation of ranges in bracket expressions, you can force the use of the C locale by setting the
LC_COLLATE or LC_ALL environment variable to the value ‘C’.

Within ‘[’ and ‘]’, character classes can be specified using the syntax [:class:], where class is one
of the following classes defined in the POSIX standard:

alnum alpha ascii blank cntrl digit graph lower

print punct space upper word xdigit

A character class matches any character belonging to that class. The word character class matches
letters, digits, and the character ‘_’.

Within ‘[’ and ‘]’, an equivalence class can be specified using the syntax [=c=], which matches all
characters with the same collation weight (as defined by the current locale) as the character c.

Within ‘[’ and ‘]’, the syntax [.symbol.] matches the collating symbol symbol.

If the extglob shell option is enabled using the shopt builtin, several extended pattern matching
operators are recognized. In the following description, a pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated
by a ‘|’. Composite patterns may be formed using one or more of the following sub-patterns:

?(pattern-list)

Matches zero or one occurrence of the given patterns.

*(pattern-list)

Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns.

+(pattern-list)

Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns.

@(pattern-list)

Matches one of the given patterns.

!(pattern-list)

Matches anything except one of the given patterns.

Previous: Filename Expansion, Up: Shell Expansions [Contents][Index]

3.5.9 Quote Removal
After the preceding expansions, all unquoted occurrences of the characters ‘\’, ‘'’, and ‘"’ that did not result
from one of the above expansions are removed.

Next: Executing Commands, Previous: Shell Expansions, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.6 Redirections
Before a command is executed, its input and output may be redirected using a special notation interpreted by
the shell. Redirection may also be used to open and close files for the current shell execution environment.
The following redirection operators may precede or appear anywhere within a simple command or may
follow a command. Redirections are processed in the order they appear, from left to right.

Each redirection that may be preceded by a file descriptor number may instead be preceded by a word of the
form {varname}. In this case, for each redirection operator except >&- and <&-, the shell will allocate a file
descriptor greater than 10 and assign it to {varname}. If >&- or <&- is preceded by {varname}, the value of
varname defines the file descriptor to close.

In the following descriptions, if the file descriptor number is omitted, and the first character of the redirection
operator is ‘<’, the redirection refers to the standard input (file descriptor 0). If the first character of the
redirection operator is ‘>’, the redirection refers to the standard output (file descriptor 1).

The word following the redirection operator in the following descriptions, unless otherwise noted, is
subjected to brace expansion, tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic
expansion, quote removal, filename expansion, and word splitting. If it expands to more than one word, Bash
reports an error.

Note that the order of redirections is significant. For example, the command

ls > dirlist 2>&1

directs both standard output (file descriptor 1) and standard error (file descriptor 2) to the file dirlist, while
the command

ls 2>&1 > dirlist

directs only the standard output to file dirlist, because the standard error was made a copy of the standard
output before the standard output was redirected to dirlist.

Bash handles several filenames specially when they are used in redirections, as described in the following
table:

/dev/fd/fd

If fd is a valid integer, file descriptor fd is duplicated.

/dev/stdin

File descriptor 0 is duplicated.

/dev/stdout

File descriptor 1 is duplicated.

/dev/stderr

File descriptor 2 is duplicated.

/dev/tcp/host/port

If host is a valid hostname or Internet address, and port is an integer port number or service name, Bash
attempts to open a TCP connection to the corresponding socket.

/dev/udp/host/port

If host is a valid hostname or Internet address, and port is an integer port number or service name, Bash
attempts to open a UDP connection to the corresponding socket.

A failure to open or create a file causes the redirection to fail.

Redirections using file descriptors greater than 9 should be used with care, as they may conflict with file
descriptors the shell uses internally.

3.6.1 Redirecting Input

Redirection of input causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for reading
on file descriptor n, or the standard input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified.

The general format for redirecting input is:

[n]<word

3.6.2 Redirecting Output

Redirection of output causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for writing
on file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the file does not exist it is
created; if it does exist it is truncated to zero size.

The general format for redirecting output is:

[n]>[|]word

If the redirection operator is ‘>’, and the noclobber option to the set builtin has been enabled, the
redirection will fail if the file whose name results from the expansion of word exists and is a regular file. If
the redirection operator is ‘>|’, or the redirection operator is ‘>’ and the noclobber option is not enabled,
the redirection is attempted even if the file named by word exists.

3.6.3 Appending Redirected Output

Redirection of output in this fashion causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be
opened for appending on file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the
file does not exist it is created.
The general format for appending output is:

[n]>>word

3.6.4 Redirecting Standard Output and Standard Error

This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the standard error output (file descriptor
2) to be redirected to the file whose name is the expansion of word.

There are two formats for redirecting standard output and standard error:

&>word

and

>&word

Of the two forms, the first is preferred. This is semantically equivalent to

>word 2>&1

3.6.5 Appending Standard Output and Standard Error

This construct allows both the standard output (file descriptor 1) and the standard error output (file descriptor
2) to be appended to the file whose name is the expansion of word.

The format for appending standard output and standard error is:

&>>word

This is semantically equivalent to

>>word 2>&1

3.6.6 Here Documents

This type of redirection instructs the shell to read input from the current source until a line containing only
word (with no trailing blanks) is seen. All of the lines read up to that point are then used as the standard input
for a command.

The format of here-documents is:

<<[-]word
here-document
delimiter

No parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, or filename expansion is performed

on word. If any characters in word are quoted, the delimiter is the result of quote removal on word, and the
lines in the here-document are not expanded. If word is unquoted, all lines of the here-document are
subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion. In the latter case, the
character sequence \newline is ignored, and ‘\’ must be used to quote the characters ‘\’, ‘$’, and ‘`’.

If the redirection operator is ‘<<-’, then all leading tab characters are stripped from input lines and the line
containing delimiter. This allows here-documents within shell scripts to be indented in a natural fashion.
3.6.7 Here Strings
A variant of here documents, the format is:

<<< word

The word is expanded and supplied to the command on its standard input.

3.6.8 Duplicating File Descriptors

The redirection operator

[n]<&word

is used to duplicate input file descriptors. If word expands to one or more digits, the file descriptor denoted
by n is made to be a copy of that file descriptor. If the digits in word do not specify a file descriptor open for
input, a redirection error occurs. If word evaluates to ‘-’, file descriptor n is closed. If n is not specified, the
standard input (file descriptor 0) is used.

The operator

[n]>&word

is used similarly to duplicate output file descriptors. If n is not specified, the standard output (file descriptor
1) is used. If the digits in word do not specify a file descriptor open for output, a redirection error occurs. As
a special case, if n is omitted, and word does not expand to one or more digits, the standard output and
standard error are redirected as described previously.

3.6.9 Moving File Descriptors

The redirection operator

[n]<&digit-

moves the file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard input (file descriptor 0) if n is not specified.
digit is closed after being duplicated to n.

Similarly, the redirection operator

[n]>&digit-

moves the file descriptor digit to file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not
specified.

3.6.10 Opening File Descriptors for Reading and Writing

The redirection operator

[n]<>word

causes the file whose name is the expansion of word to be opened for both reading and writing on file
descriptor n, or on file descriptor 0 if n is not specified. If the file does not exist, it is created.
Next: Shell Scripts, Previous: Redirections, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.7 Executing Commands

• Simple Command Expansion: How Bash expands simple commands before executing them.

• Command Search and How Bash finds commands and runs them.
Execution:

• Command Execution The environment in which Bash executes commands that are not shell
Environment: builtins.

• Environment: The environment given to a command.

• Exit Status: The status returned by commands and how Bash interprets it.

• Signals: What happens when Bash or a command it runs receives a signal.

Next: Command Search and Execution, Up: Executing Commands [Contents][Index]

3.7.1 Simple Command Expansion

When a simple command is executed, the shell performs the following expansions, assignments, and
redirections, from left to right.

1. The words that the parser has marked as variable assignments (those preceding the command name)
and redirections are saved for later processing.
2. The words that are not variable assignments or redirections are expanded (see Shell Expansions). If
any words remain after expansion, the first word is taken to be the name of the command and the
remaining words are the arguments.
3. Redirections are performed as described above (see Redirections).
4. The text after the ‘=’ in each variable assignment undergoes tilde expansion, parameter expansion,
command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal before being assigned to the variable.

If no command name results, the variable assignments affect the current shell environment. Otherwise, the
variables are added to the environment of the executed command and do not affect the current shell
environment. If any of the assignments attempts to assign a value to a readonly variable, an error occurs, and
the command exits with a non-zero status.

If no command name results, redirections are performed, but do not affect the current shell environment. A
redirection error causes the command to exit with a non-zero status.

If there is a command name left after expansion, execution proceeds as described below. Otherwise, the
command exits. If one of the expansions contained a command substitution, the exit status of the command is
the exit status of the last command substitution performed. If there were no command substitutions, the
command exits with a status of zero.

Next: Command Execution Environment, Previous: Simple Command Expansion, Up: Executing Commands
 [Contents][Index]

3.7.2 Command Search and Execution

After a command has been split into words, if it results in a simple command and an optional list of
arguments, the following actions are taken.

1. If the command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts to locate it. If there exists a shell
function by that name, that function is invoked as described in Shell Functions.
2. If the name does not match a function, the shell searches for it in the list of shell builtins. If a match is
found, that builtin is invoked.
3. If the name is neither a shell function nor a builtin, and contains no slashes, Bash searches each
element of $PATH for a directory containing an executable file by that name. Bash uses a hash table
to remember the full pathnames of executable files to avoid multiple PATH searches (see the
description of hash in Bourne Shell Builtins). A full search of the directories in $PATH is performed
only if the command is not found in the hash table. If the search is unsuccessful, the shell searches for
a defined shell function named command_not_found_handle. If that function exists, it is
invoked with the original command and the original command’s arguments as its arguments, and the
function’s exit status becomes the exit status of the shell. If that function is not defined, the shell
prints an error message and returns an exit status of 127.
4. If the search is successful, or if the command name contains one or more slashes, the shell executes
the named program in a separate execution environment. Argument 0 is set to the name given, and the
remaining arguments to the command are set to the arguments supplied, if any.
5. If this execution fails because the file is not in executable format, and the file is not a directory, it is
assumed to be a shell script and the shell executes it as described in Shell Scripts.
6. If the command was not begun asynchronously, the shell waits for the command to complete and
collects its exit status.

Next: Environment, Previous: Command Search and Execution, Up: Executing Commands [Contents]
[Index]

3.7.3 Command Execution Environment

The shell has an execution environment, which consists of the following:

• open files inherited by the shell at invocation, as modified by redirections supplied to the exec
builtin
• the current working directory as set by cd, pushd, or popd, or inherited by the shell at invocation
• the file creation mode mask as set by umask or inherited from the shell’s parent
• current traps set by trap
• shell parameters that are set by variable assignment or with set or inherited from the shell’s parent in
the environment
• shell functions defined during execution or inherited from the shell’s parent in the environment
• options enabled at invocation (either by default or with command-line arguments) or by set
• options enabled by shopt (see The Shopt Builtin)
• shell aliases defined with alias (see Aliases)
• various process IDs, including those of background jobs (see Lists), the value of $$, and the value of
$PPID

When a simple command other than a builtin or shell function is to be executed, it is invoked in a separate
execution environment that consists of the following. Unless otherwise noted, the values are inherited from
the shell.

• the shell’s open files, plus any modifications and additions specified by redirections to the command
• the current working directory
• the file creation mode mask
• shell variables and functions marked for export, along with variables exported for the command,
passed in the environment (see Environment)
• traps caught by the shell are reset to the values inherited from the shell’s parent, and traps ignored by
the shell are ignored

A command invoked in this separate environment cannot affect the shell’s execution environment.

Command substitution, commands grouped with parentheses, and asynchronous commands are invoked in a
subshell environment that is a duplicate of the shell environment, except that traps caught by the shell are
reset to the values that the shell inherited from its parent at invocation. Builtin commands that are invoked as
part of a pipeline are also executed in a subshell environment. Changes made to the subshell environment
cannot affect the shell’s execution environment.

Subshells spawned to execute command substitutions inherit the value of the -e option from the parent shell.
When not in POSIX mode, Bash clears the -e option in such subshells.

If a command is followed by a ‘&’ and job control is not active, the default standard input for the command is
the empty file /dev/null. Otherwise, the invoked command inherits the file descriptors of the calling shell
as modified by redirections.

Next: Exit Status, Previous: Command Execution Environment, Up: Executing Commands [Contents]
[Index]

3.7.4 Environment
When a program is invoked it is given an array of strings called the environment. This is a list of name-value
pairs, of the form name=value.

Bash provides several ways to manipulate the environment. On invocation, the shell scans its own
environment and creates a parameter for each name found, automatically marking it for export to child
processes. Executed commands inherit the environment. The export and ‘declare -x’ commands allow
parameters and functions to be added to and deleted from the environment. If the value of a parameter in the
environment is modified, the new value becomes part of the environment, replacing the old. The environment
inherited by any executed command consists of the shell’s initial environment, whose values may be
modified in the shell, less any pairs removed by the unset and ‘export -n’ commands, plus any
additions via the export and ‘declare -x’ commands.

The environment for any simple command or function may be augmented temporarily by prefixing it with
parameter assignments, as described in Shell Parameters. These assignment statements affect only the
environment seen by that command.

If the -k option is set (see The Set Builtin), then all parameter assignments are placed in the environment for
a command, not just those that precede the command name.
When Bash invokes an external command, the variable ‘$_’ is set to the full path name of the command and
passed to that command in its environment.

Next: Signals, Previous: Environment, Up: Executing Commands [Contents][Index]

3.7.5 Exit Status

The exit status of an executed command is the value returned by the waitpid system call or equivalent
function. Exit statuses fall between 0 and 255, though, as explained below, the shell may use values above
125 specially. Exit statuses from shell builtins and compound commands are also limited to this range. Under
certain circumstances, the shell will use special values to indicate specific failure modes.

For the shell’s purposes, a command which exits with a zero exit status has succeeded. A non-zero exit status
indicates failure. This seemingly counter-intuitive scheme is used so there is one well-defined way to indicate
success and a variety of ways to indicate various failure modes. When a command terminates on a fatal
signal whose number is N, Bash uses the value 128+N as the exit status.

If a command is not found, the child process created to execute it returns a status of 127. If a command is
found but is not executable, the return status is 126.

If a command fails because of an error during expansion or redirection, the exit status is greater than zero.

The exit status is used by the Bash conditional commands (see Conditional Constructs) and some of the list
constructs (see Lists).

All of the Bash builtins return an exit status of zero if they succeed and a non-zero status on failure, so they
may be used by the conditional and list constructs. All builtins return an exit status of 2 to indicate incorrect
usage.

Previous: Exit Status, Up: Executing Commands [Contents][Index]

3.7.6 Signals
When Bash is interactive, in the absence of any traps, it ignores SIGTERM (so that ‘kill 0’ does not kill an
interactive shell), and SIGINT is caught and handled (so that the wait builtin is interruptible). When Bash
receives a SIGINT, it breaks out of any executing loops. In all cases, Bash ignores SIGQUIT. If job control
is in effect (see Job Control), Bash ignores SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, and SIGTSTP.

Non-builtin commands started by Bash have signal handlers set to the values inherited by the shell from its
parent. When job control is not in effect, asynchronous commands ignore SIGINT and SIGQUIT in addition
to these inherited handlers. Commands run as a result of command substitution ignore the keyboard-
generated job control signals SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, and SIGTSTP.

The shell exits by default upon receipt of a SIGHUP. Before exiting, an interactive shell resends the SIGHUP
to all jobs, running or stopped. Stopped jobs are sent SIGCONT to ensure that they receive the SIGHUP. To
prevent the shell from sending the SIGHUP signal to a particular job, it should be removed from the jobs
table with the disown builtin (see Job Control Builtins) or marked to not receive SIGHUP using disown
-h.
If the huponexit shell option has been set with shopt (see The Shopt Builtin), Bash sends a SIGHUP to
all jobs when an interactive login shell exits.

If Bash is waiting for a command to complete and receives a signal for which a trap has been set, the trap will
not be executed until the command completes. When Bash is waiting for an asynchronous command via the
wait builtin, the reception of a signal for which a trap has been set will cause the wait builtin to return
immediately with an exit status greater than 128, immediately after which the trap is executed.

Previous: Executing Commands, Up: Basic Shell Features [Contents][Index]

3.8 Shell Scripts

A shell script is a text file containing shell commands. When such a file is used as the first non-option
argument when invoking Bash, and neither the -c nor -s option is supplied (see Invoking Bash), Bash reads
and executes commands from the file, then exits. This mode of operation creates a non-interactive shell. The
shell first searches for the file in the current directory, and looks in the directories in $PATH if not found
there.

When Bash runs a shell script, it sets the special parameter 0 to the name of the file, rather than the name of
the shell, and the positional parameters are set to the remaining arguments, if any are given. If no additional
arguments are supplied, the positional parameters are unset.

A shell script may be made executable by using the chmod command to turn on the execute bit. When Bash
finds such a file while searching the $PATH for a command, it spawns a subshell to execute it. In other
words, executing

filename arguments

is equivalent to executing

bash filename arguments

if filename is an executable shell script. This subshell reinitializes itself, so that the effect is as if a new
shell had been invoked to interpret the script, with the exception that the locations of commands remembered
by the parent (see the description of hash in Bourne Shell Builtins) are retained by the child.

Most versions of Unix make this a part of the operating system’s command execution mechanism. If the first
line of a script begins with the two characters ‘#!’, the remainder of the line specifies an interpreter for the
program. Thus, you can specify Bash, awk, Perl, or some other interpreter and write the rest of the script file
in that language.

The arguments to the interpreter consist of a single optional argument following the interpreter name on the
first line of the script file, followed by the name of the script file, followed by the rest of the arguments. Bash
will perform this action on operating systems that do not handle it themselves. Note that some older versions
of Unix limit the interpreter name and argument to a maximum of 32 characters.

Bash scripts often begin with #! /bin/bash (assuming that Bash has been installed in /bin), since this
ensures that Bash will be used to interpret the script, even if it is executed under another shell.
Next: Shell Variables, Previous: Basic Shell Features, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

4 Shell Builtin Commands

• Bourne Shell Builtins: Builtin commands inherited from the Bourne Shell.

• Bash Builtins: Table of builtins specific to Bash.

• Modifying Shell Builtins to modify shell attributes and optional

Behavior: behavior.

• Special Builtins: Builtin commands classified specially by POSIX.

Builtin commands are contained within the shell itself. When the name of a builtin command is used as the
first word of a simple command (see Simple Commands), the shell executes the command directly, without
invoking another program. Builtin commands are necessary to implement functionality impossible or
inconvenient to obtain with separate utilities.

This section briefly describes the builtins which Bash inherits from the Bourne Shell, as well as the builtin
commands which are unique to or have been extended in Bash.

Several builtin commands are described in other chapters: builtin commands which provide the Bash
interface to the job control facilities (see Job Control Builtins), the directory stack (see Directory Stack
Builtins), the command history (see Bash History Builtins), and the programmable completion facilities (see
Programmable Completion Builtins).

Many of the builtins have been extended by POSIX or Bash.

Unless otherwise noted, each builtin command documented as accepting options preceded by ‘-’ accepts
‘--’ to signify the end of the options. The :, true, false, and test builtins do not accept options and do
not treat ‘--’ specially. The exit, logout, break, continue, let, and shift builtins accept and
process arguments beginning with ‘-’ without requiring ‘--’. Other builtins that accept arguments but are
not specified as accepting options interpret arguments beginning with ‘-’ as invalid options and require ‘--’
to prevent this interpretation.

Next: Bash Builtins, Up: Shell Builtin Commands [Contents][Index]

4.1 Bourne Shell Builtins

The following shell builtin commands are inherited from the Bourne Shell. These commands are
implemented as specified by the POSIX standard.

: (a colon)

: [arguments]

Do nothing beyond expanding arguments and performing redirections. The return status is zero.

. (a period)
 . filename [arguments]

Read and execute commands from the filename argument in the current shell context. If filename does
not contain a slash, the PATH variable is used to find filename. When Bash is not in POSIX mode, the
current directory is searched if filename is not found in $PATH. If any arguments are supplied, they
become the positional parameters when filename is executed. Otherwise the positional parameters are
unchanged. The return status is the exit status of the last command executed, or zero if no commands
are executed. If filename is not found, or cannot be read, the return status is non-zero. This builtin is
equivalent to source.

break

break [n]

Exit from a for, while, until, or select loop. If n is supplied, the nth enclosing loop is exited. n
must be greater than or equal to 1. The return status is zero unless n is not greater than or equal to 1.

cd

cd [-L|[-P [-e]]] [directory]

Change the current working directory to directory. If directory is not given, the value of the HOME shell
variable is used. If the shell variable CDPATH exists, it is used as a search path. If directory begins with
a slash, CDPATH is not used.

The -P option means to not follow symbolic links; symbolic links are followed by default or with the
-L option. If the -e option is supplied with -P and the current working directory cannot be
successfully determined after a successful directory change, cd will return an unsuccessful status. If
directory is ‘-’, it is equivalent to $OLDPWD.

If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if ‘-’ is the first argument, and the directory
change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard
output.

The return status is zero if the directory is successfully changed, non-zero otherwise.

continue

continue [n]

Resume the next iteration of an enclosing for, while, until, or select loop. If n is supplied, the
execution of the nth enclosing loop is resumed. n must be greater than or equal to 1. The return status is
zero unless n is not greater than or equal to 1.

eval

eval [arguments]

The arguments are concatenated together into a single command, which is then read and executed, and
its exit status returned as the exit status of eval. If there are no arguments or only empty arguments,
the return status is zero.
exec

exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments]]

If command is supplied, it replaces the shell without creating a new process. If the -l option is
supplied, the shell places a dash at the beginning of the zeroth argument passed to command. This is
what the login program does. The -c option causes command to be executed with an empty
environment. If -a is supplied, the shell passes name as the zeroth argument to command. If no
command is specified, redirections may be used to affect the current shell environment. If there are no
redirection errors, the return status is zero; otherwise the return status is non-zero.

exit

exit [n]

Exit the shell, returning a status of n to the shell’s parent. If n is omitted, the exit status is that of the last
command executed. Any trap on EXIT is executed before the shell terminates.

export

export [-fn] [-p] [name[=value]]

Mark each name to be passed to child processes in the environment. If the -f option is supplied, the
names refer to shell functions; otherwise the names refer to shell variables. The -n option means to no
longer mark each name for export. If no names are supplied, or if the -p option is given, a list of
exported names is displayed. The -p option displays output in a form that may be reused as input. If a
variable name is followed by =value, the value of the variable is set to value.

The return status is zero unless an invalid option is supplied, one of the names is not a valid shell
variable name, or -f is supplied with a name that is not a shell function.

getopts

getopts optstring name [args]

getopts is used by shell scripts to parse positional parameters. optstring contains the option
characters to be recognized; if a character is followed by a colon, the option is expected to have an
argument, which should be separated from it by white space. The colon (‘:’) and question mark (‘?’)
may not be used as option characters. Each time it is invoked, getopts places the next option in the
shell variable name, initializing name if it does not exist, and the index of the next argument to be
processed into the variable OPTIND. OPTIND is initialized to 1 each time the shell or a shell script is
invoked. When an option requires an argument, getopts places that argument into the variable
OPTARG. The shell does not reset OPTIND automatically; it must be manually reset between multiple
calls to getopts within the same shell invocation if a new set of parameters is to be used.

When the end of options is encountered, getopts exits with a return value greater than zero.
OPTIND is set to the index of the first non-option argument, and name is set to ‘?’.

getopts normally parses the positional parameters, but if more arguments are given in args,
getopts parses those instead.
 getopts can report errors in two ways. If the first character of optstring is a colon, silent error
reporting is used. In normal operation diagnostic messages are printed when invalid options or missing
option arguments are encountered. If the variable OPTERR is set to 0, no error messages will be
displayed, even if the first character of optstring is not a colon.

If an invalid option is seen, getopts places ‘?’ into name and, if not silent, prints an error message
and unsets OPTARG. If getopts is silent, the option character found is placed in OPTARG and no
diagnostic message is printed.

If a required argument is not found, and getopts is not silent, a question mark (‘?’) is placed in
name, OPTARG is unset, and a diagnostic message is printed. If getopts is silent, then a colon (‘:’)
is placed in name and OPTARG is set to the option character found.

hash

hash [-r] [-p filename] [-dt] [name]

Each time hash is invoked, it remembers the full pathnames of the commands specified as name
arguments, so they need not be searched for on subsequent invocations. The commands are found by
searching through the directories listed in $PATH. Any previously-remembered pathname is discarded.
The -p option inhibits the path search, and filename is used as the location of name. The -r option
causes the shell to forget all remembered locations. The -d option causes the shell to forget the
remembered location of each name. If the -t option is supplied, the full pathname to which each name
corresponds is printed. If multiple name arguments are supplied with -t the name is printed before the
hashed full pathname. The -l option causes output to be displayed in a format that may be reused as
input. If no arguments are given, or if only -l is supplied, information about remembered commands is
printed. The return status is zero unless a name is not found or an invalid option is supplied.

pwd

pwd [-LP]

Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory. If the -P option is supplied, the pathname
printed will not contain symbolic links. If the -L option is supplied, the pathname printed may contain
symbolic links. The return status is zero unless an error is encountered while determining the name of
the current directory or an invalid option is supplied.

readonly

readonly [-aAf] [-p] [name[=value]] …

Mark each name as readonly. The values of these names may not be changed by subsequent
assignment. If the -f option is supplied, each name refers to a shell function. The -a option means
each name refers to an indexed array variable; the -A option means each name refers to an associative
array variable. If both options are supplied, -A takes precedence. If no name arguments are given, or if
the -p option is supplied, a list of all readonly names is printed. The other options may be used to
restrict the output to a subset of the set of readonly names. The -p option causes output to be displayed
in a format that may be reused as input. If a variable name is followed by =value, the value of the
variable is set to value. The return status is zero unless an invalid option is supplied, one of the name
arguments is not a valid shell variable or function name, or the -f option is supplied with a name that
is not a shell function.
return

return [n]

Cause a shell function to exit with the return value n. If n is not supplied, the return value is the exit
status of the last command executed in the function. This may also be used to terminate execution of a
script being executed with the . (or source) builtin, returning either n or the exit status of the last
command executed within the script as the exit status of the script. Any command associated with the
RETURN trap is executed before execution resumes after the function or script. The return status is non-
zero if return is used outside a function and not during the execution of a script by . or source.

shift

shift [n]

Shift the positional parameters to the left by n. The positional parameters from n+1 … $# are renamed
to $1 … $#-n. Parameters represented by the numbers $# to $#-n+1 are unset. n must be a non-
negative number less than or equal to $#. If n is zero or greater than $#, the positional parameters are
not changed. If n is not supplied, it is assumed to be 1. The return status is zero unless n is greater than
$# or less than zero, non-zero otherwise.

test
[

Evaluate a conditional expression expr. Each operator and operand must be a separate argument.
Expressions are composed of the primaries described below in Bash Conditional Expressions. test
does not accept any options, nor does it accept and ignore an argument of -- as signifying the end of
options.

When the [ form is used, the last argument to the command must be a ].

Expressions may be combined using the following operators, listed in decreasing order of precedence.
The evaluation depends on the number of arguments; see below. Operator precedence is used when
there are five or more arguments.

! expr

True if expr is false.

( expr )

Returns the value of expr. This may be used to override the normal precedence of operators.

expr1 -a expr2

True if both expr1 and expr2 are true.

expr1 -o expr2

True if either expr1 or expr2 is true.

 The test and [ builtins evaluate conditional expressions using a set of rules based on the number of
arguments.

0 arguments

The expression is false.

1 argument

The expression is true if and only if the argument is not null.

2 arguments

If the first argument is ‘!’, the expression is true if and only if the second argument is null. If the
first argument is one of the unary conditional operators (see Bash Conditional Expressions), the
expression is true if the unary test is true. If the first argument is not a valid unary operator, the
expression is false.

3 arguments

The following conditions are applied in the order listed. If the second argument is one of the
binary conditional operators (see Bash Conditional Expressions), the result of the expression is
the result of the binary test using the first and third arguments as operands. The ‘-a’ and ‘-o’
operators are considered binary operators when there are three arguments. If the first argument is
‘!’, the value is the negation of the two-argument test using the second and third arguments. If
the first argument is exactly ‘(’ and the third argument is exactly ‘)’, the result is the one-
argument test of the second argument. Otherwise, the expression is false.

4 arguments

If the first argument is ‘!’, the result is the negation of the three-argument expression composed
of the remaining arguments. Otherwise, the expression is parsed and evaluated according to
precedence using the rules listed above.

5 or more arguments

The expression is parsed and evaluated according to precedence using the rules listed above.

When used with test or ‘[’, the ‘<’ and ‘>’ operators sort lexicographically using ASCII ordering.

times

times

Print out the user and system times used by the shell and its children. The return status is zero.

trap

trap [-lp] [arg] [sigspec …]

The commands in arg are to be read and executed when the shell receives signal sigspec. If arg is
absent (and there is a single sigspec) or equal to ‘-’, each specified signal’s disposition is reset to the
 value it had when the shell was started. If arg is the null string, then the signal specified by each
sigspec is ignored by the shell and commands it invokes. If arg is not present and -p has been
supplied, the shell displays the trap commands associated with each sigspec. If no arguments are
supplied, or only -p is given, trap prints the list of commands associated with each signal number in
a form that may be reused as shell input. The -l option causes the shell to print a list of signal names
and their corresponding numbers. Each sigspec is either a signal name or a signal number. Signal
names are case insensitive and the SIG prefix is optional.

If a sigspec is 0 or EXIT, arg is executed when the shell exits. If a sigspec is DEBUG, the command
arg is executed before every simple command, for command, case command, select command,
every arithmetic for command, and before the first command executes in a shell function. Refer to the
description of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin (see The Shopt Builtin) for details of its
effect on the DEBUG trap. If a sigspec is RETURN, the command arg is executed each time a shell
function or a script executed with the . or source builtins finishes executing.

If a sigspec is ERR, the command arg is executed whenever a simple command has a non-zero exit
status, subject to the following conditions. The ERR trap is not executed if the failed command is part
of the command list immediately following an until or while keyword, part of the test following
the if or elif reserved words, part of a command executed in a && or || list, or if the command’s
return status is being inverted using !. These are the same conditions obeyed by the errexit option.

Signals ignored upon entry to the shell cannot be trapped or reset. Trapped signals that are not being
ignored are reset to their original values in a subshell or subshell environment when one is created.

The return status is zero unless a sigspec does not specify a valid signal.

umask

umask [-p] [-S] [mode]

Set the shell process’s file creation mask to mode. If mode begins with a digit, it is interpreted as an
octal number; if not, it is interpreted as a symbolic mode mask similar to that accepted by the chmod
command. If mode is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed. If the -S option is supplied
without a mode argument, the mask is printed in a symbolic format. If the -p option is supplied, and
mode is omitted, the output is in a form that may be reused as input. The return status is zero if the
mode is successfully changed or if no mode argument is supplied, and non-zero otherwise.

Note that when the mode is interpreted as an octal number, each number of the umask is subtracted
from 7. Thus, a umask of 022 results in permissions of 755.

unset

unset [-fv] [name]

Each variable or function name is removed. If no options are supplied, or the -v option is given, each
name refers to a shell variable. If the -f option is given, the names refer to shell functions, and the
function definition is removed. Readonly variables and functions may not be unset. The return status is
zero unless a name is readonly.

Next: Modifying Shell Behavior, Previous: Bourne Shell Builtins, Up: Shell Builtin Commands [Contents]
[Index]

4.2 Bash Builtin Commands

This section describes builtin commands which are unique to or have been extended in Bash. Some of these
commands are specified in the POSIX standard.

alias

alias [-p] [name[=value] …]

Without arguments or with the -p option, alias prints the list of aliases on the standard output in a
form that allows them to be reused as input. If arguments are supplied, an alias is defined for each
name whose value is given. If no value is given, the name and value of the alias is printed. Aliases are
described in Aliases.

bind

bind [-m keymap] [-lpsvPSV]

bind [-m keymap] [-q function] [-u function] [-r keyseq]
bind [-m keymap] -f filename
bind [-m keymap] -x keyseq:shell-command
bind [-m keymap] keyseq:function-name
bind readline-command

Display current Readline (see Command Line Editing) key and function bindings, bind a key sequence
to a Readline function or macro, or set a Readline variable. Each non-option argument is a command as
it would appear in a Readline initialization file (see Readline Init File), but each binding or command
must be passed as a separate argument; e.g., ‘"\C-x\C-r":re-read-init-file’.

Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:

-m keymap

Use keymap as the keymap to be affected by the subsequent bindings. Acceptable keymap names
are emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-
command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is equivalent to
emacs-standard.

-l

List the names of all Readline functions.

-p

Display Readline function names and bindings in such a way that they can be used as input or in
a Readline initialization file.

-P

List current Readline function names and bindings.

-v
 Display Readline variable names and values in such a way that they can be used as input or in a
Readline initialization file.

-V

List current Readline variable names and values.

-s

Display Readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output in such a way that
they can be used as input or in a Readline initialization file.

-S

Display Readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output.

-f filename

Read key bindings from filename.

-q function

Query about which keys invoke the named function.

-u function

Unbind all keys bound to the named function.

-r keyseq

Remove any current binding for keyseq.

-x keyseq:shell-command

Cause shell-command to be executed whenever keyseq is entered. When shell-command is

executed, the shell sets the READLINE_LINE variable to the contents of the Readline line buffer
and the READLINE_POINT variable to the current location of the insertion point. If the executed
command changes the value of READLINE_LINE or READLINE_POINT, those new values
will be reflected in the editing state.

The return status is zero unless an invalid option is supplied or an error occurs.

builtin

builtin [shell-builtin [args]]

Run a shell builtin, passing it args, and return its exit status. This is useful when defining a shell
function with the same name as a shell builtin, retaining the functionality of the builtin within the
function. The return status is non-zero if shell-builtin is not a shell builtin command.

caller
 caller [expr]

Returns the context of any active subroutine call (a shell function or a script executed with the . or
source builtins).

Without expr, caller displays the line number and source filename of the current subroutine call. If a
non-negative integer is supplied as expr, caller displays the line number, subroutine name, and
source file corresponding to that position in the current execution call stack. This extra information
may be used, for example, to print a stack trace. The current frame is frame 0.

The return value is 0 unless the shell is not executing a subroutine call or expr does not correspond to a
valid position in the call stack.

command

command [-pVv] command [arguments …]

Runs command with arguments ignoring any shell function named command. Only shell builtin
commands or commands found by searching the PATH are executed. If there is a shell function named
ls, running ‘command ls’ within the function will execute the external command ls instead of
calling the function recursively. The -p option means to use a default value for PATH that is
guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities. The return status in this case is 127 if command cannot
be found or an error occurred, and the exit status of command otherwise.

If either the -V or -v option is supplied, a description of command is printed. The -v option causes a
single word indicating the command or file name used to invoke command to be displayed; the -V
option produces a more verbose description. In this case, the return status is zero if command is found,
and non-zero if not.

declare

declare [-aAfFilrtux] [-p] [name[=value] …]

Declare variables and give them attributes. If no names are given, then display the values of variables
instead.

The -p option will display the attributes and values of each name. When -p is used with name
arguments, additional options are ignored.

When -p is supplied without name arguments, declare will display the attributes and values of all
variables having the attributes specified by the additional options. If no other options are supplied with
-p, declare will display the attributes and values of all shell variables. The -f option will restrict
the display to shell functions.

The -F option inhibits the display of function definitions; only the function name and attributes are
printed. If the extdebug shell option is enabled using shopt (see The Shopt Builtin), the source file
name and line number where the function is defined are displayed as well. -F implies -f.

The -g option forces variables to be created or modified at the global scope, even when declare is
executed in a shell function. It is ignored in all other cases.

The following options can be used to restrict output to variables with the specified attributes or to give
variables attributes:

-a

Each name is an indexed array variable (see Arrays).

-A

Each name is an associative array variable (see Arrays).

-f

Use function names only.

-i

The variable is to be treated as an integer; arithmetic evaluation (see Shell Arithmetic) is

performed when the variable is assigned a value.

-l

When the variable is assigned a value, all upper-case characters are converted to lower-case. The
upper-case attribute is disabled.

-r

Make names readonly. These names cannot then be assigned values by subsequent assignment
statements or unset.

-t

Give each name the trace attribute. Traced functions inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps
from the calling shell. The trace attribute has no special meaning for variables.

-u

When the variable is assigned a value, all lower-case characters are converted to upper-case. The
lower-case attribute is disabled.

-x

Mark each name for export to subsequent commands via the environment.

Using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’ turns off the attribute instead, with the exceptions that ‘+a’ may not be used to
destroy an array variable and ‘+r’ will not remove the readonly attribute. When used in a function,
declare makes each name local, as with the local command, unless the ‘-g’ option is used. If a
variable name is followed by =value, the value of the variable is set to value.

The return status is zero unless an invalid option is encountered, an attempt is made to define a function
using ‘-f foo=bar’, an attempt is made to assign a value to a readonly variable, an attempt is made
to assign a value to an array variable without using the compound assignment syntax (see Arrays), one
 of the names is not a valid shell variable name, an attempt is made to turn off readonly status for a
readonly variable, an attempt is made to turn off array status for an array variable, or an attempt is
made to display a non-existent function with -f.

echo

echo [-neE] [arg …]

Output the args, separated by spaces, terminated with a newline. The return status is always 0. If -n is
specified, the trailing newline is suppressed. If the -e option is given, interpretation of the following
backslash-escaped characters is enabled. The -E option disables the interpretation of these escape
characters, even on systems where they are interpreted by default. The xpg_echo shell option may be
used to dynamically determine whether or not echo expands these escape characters by default. echo
does not interpret -- to mean the end of options.

echo interprets the following escape sequences:

\a

alert (bell)

\b

backspace

\c

suppress further output

\e
\E

escape

\f

form feed

\n

new line

\r

carriage return

\t

horizontal tab

\v
 vertical tab

\\

backslash

\0nnn

the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (zero to three octal digits)

\xHH

the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits)

\uHHHH

the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHH (one to
four hex digits)

\UHHHHHHHH

the Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character whose value is the hexadecimal value HHHHHHHH
(one to eight hex digits)

enable

enable [-a] [-dnps] [-f filename] [name …]

Enable and disable builtin shell commands. Disabling a builtin allows a disk command which has the
same name as a shell builtin to be executed without specifying a full pathname, even though the shell
normally searches for builtins before disk commands. If -n is used, the names become disabled.
Otherwise names are enabled. For example, to use the test binary found via $PATH instead of the
shell builtin version, type ‘enable -n test’.

If the -p option is supplied, or no name arguments appear, a list of shell builtins is printed. With no
other arguments, the list consists of all enabled shell builtins. The -a option means to list each builtin
with an indication of whether or not it is enabled.

The -f option means to load the new builtin command name from shared object filename, on systems
that support dynamic loading. The -d option will delete a builtin loaded with -f.

If there are no options, a list of the shell builtins is displayed. The -s option restricts enable to the
POSIX special builtins. If -s is used with -f, the new builtin becomes a special builtin (see Special
Builtins).

The return status is zero unless a name is not a shell builtin or there is an error loading a new builtin
from a shared object.

help

help [-dms] [pattern]

 Display helpful information about builtin commands. If pattern is specified, help gives detailed help
on all commands matching pattern, otherwise a list of the builtins is printed.

Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:

-d

Display a short description of each pattern

-m

Display the description of each pattern in a manpage-like format

-s

Display only a short usage synopsis for each pattern

The return status is zero unless no command matches pattern.

let

let expression [expression]

The let builtin allows arithmetic to be performed on shell variables. Each expression is evaluated
according to the rules given below in Shell Arithmetic. If the last expression evaluates to 0, let returns
1; otherwise 0 is returned.

local

local [option] name[=value] …

For each argument, a local variable named name is created, and assigned value. The option can be any
of the options accepted by declare. local can only be used within a function; it makes the variable
name have a visible scope restricted to that function and its children. The return status is zero unless
local is used outside a function, an invalid name is supplied, or name is a readonly variable.

logout

logout [n]

Exit a login shell, returning a status of n to the shell’s parent.

mapfile

mapfile [-n count] [-O origin] [-s count] [-t] [-u fd] [
-C callback] [-c quantum] [array]

Read lines from the standard input into the indexed array variable array, or from file descriptor fd if the
-u option is supplied. The variable MAPFILE is the default array. Options, if supplied, have the
following meanings:

-n
 Copy at most count lines. If count is 0, all lines are copied.

-O

Begin assigning to array at index origin. The default index is 0.

-s

Discard the first count lines read.

-t

Remove a trailing newline from each line read.

-u

Read lines from file descriptor fd instead of the standard input.

-C

Evaluate callback each time quantumP lines are read. The -c option specifies quantum.

-c

Specify the number of lines read between each call to callback.

If -C is specified without -c, the default quantum is 5000. When callback is evaluated, it is supplied
the index of the next array element to be assigned and the line to be assigned to that element as
additional arguments. callback is evaluated after the line is read but before the array element is
assigned.

If not supplied with an explicit origin, mapfile will clear array before assigning to it.

mapfile returns successfully unless an invalid option or option argument is supplied, array is invalid
or unassignable, or array is not an indexed array.

printf

printf [-v var] format [arguments]

Write the formatted arguments to the standard output under the control of the format. The -v option
causes the output to be assigned to the variable var rather than being printed to the standard output.

The format is a character string which contains three types of objects: plain characters, which are
simply copied to standard output, character escape sequences, which are converted and copied to the
standard output, and format specifications, each of which causes printing of the next successive
argument. In addition to the standard printf(1) formats, printf interprets the following
extensions:

%b
 causes printf to expand backslash escape sequences in the corresponding argument, (except
that ‘\c’ terminates output, backslashes in ‘\'’, ‘\"’, and ‘\?’ are not removed, and octal
escapes beginning with ‘\0’ may contain up to four digits).

%q

causes printf to output the corresponding argument in a format that can be reused as shell
input.

%(datefmt)T

causes printf to output the date-time string resulting from using datefmt as a format string for
strftime(3). The corresponding argument is an integer representing the number of seconds
since the epoch. Two special argument values may be used: -1 represents the current time, and -2
represents the time the shell was invoked.

Arguments to non-string format specifiers are treated as C language constants, except that a leading
plus or minus sign is allowed, and if the leading character is a single or double quote, the value is the
ASCII value of the following character.

The format is reused as necessary to consume all of the arguments. If the format requires more
arguments than are supplied, the extra format specifications behave as if a zero value or null string, as
appropriate, had been supplied. The return value is zero on success, non-zero on failure.

read

read [-ers] [-a aname] [-d delim] [-i text] [-n nchars] [-N nchars] [-p prompt] [-t
timeout] [-u fd] [name …]

One line is read from the standard input, or from the file descriptor fd supplied as an argument to the
-u option, and the first word is assigned to the first name, the second word to the second name, and so
on, with leftover words and their intervening separators assigned to the last name. If there are fewer
words read from the input stream than names, the remaining names are assigned empty values. The
characters in the value of the IFS variable are used to split the line into words. The backslash character
‘\’ may be used to remove any special meaning for the next character read and for line continuation. If
no names are supplied, the line read is assigned to the variable REPLY. The return code is zero, unless
end-of-file is encountered, read times out (in which case the return code is greater than 128), or an
invalid file descriptor is supplied as the argument to -u.

Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:

-a aname

The words are assigned to sequential indices of the array variable aname, starting at 0. All
elements are removed from aname before the assignment. Other name arguments are ignored.

-d delim

The first character of delim is used to terminate the input line, rather than newline.

-e
 Readline (see Command Line Editing) is used to obtain the line. Readline uses the current (or
default, if line editing was not previously active) editing settings.

-i text

If Readline is being used to read the line, text is placed into the editing buffer before editing
begins.

-n nchars

read returns after reading nchars characters rather than waiting for a complete line of input, but
honor a delimiter if fewer than nchars characters are read before the delimiter.

-N nchars

read returns after reading exactly nchars characters rather than waiting for a complete line of
input, unless EOF is encountered or read times out. Delimiter characters encountered in the
input are not treated specially and do not cause read to return until nchars characters are read.

-p prompt

Display prompt, without a trailing newline, before attempting to read any input. The prompt is
displayed only if input is coming from a terminal.

-r

If this option is given, backslash does not act as an escape character. The backslash is considered
to be part of the line. In particular, a backslash-newline pair may not be used as a line
continuation.

-s

Silent mode. If input is coming from a terminal, characters are not echoed.

-t timeout

Cause read to time out and return failure if a complete line of input is not read within timeout
seconds. timeout may be a decimal number with a fractional portion following the decimal point.
This option is only effective if read is reading input from a terminal, pipe, or other special file;
it has no effect when reading from regular files. If timeout is 0, read returns success if input is
available on the specified file descriptor, failure otherwise. The exit status is greater than 128 if
the timeout is exceeded.

-u fd

Read input from file descriptor fd.

readarray

readarray [-n count] [-O origin] [-s count] [-t] [-u fd] [
-C callback] [-c quantum] [array]
 Read lines from the standard input into the indexed array variable array, or from file descriptor fd if the
-u option is supplied.

A synonym for mapfile.

source

source filename

A synonym for . (see Bourne Shell Builtins).

type

type [-afptP] [name …]

For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name.

If the -t option is used, type prints a single word which is one of ‘alias’, ‘function’,
‘builtin’, ‘file’ or ‘keyword’, if name is an alias, shell function, shell builtin, disk file, or shell
reserved word, respectively. If the name is not found, then nothing is printed, and type returns a
failure status.

If the -p option is used, type either returns the name of the disk file that would be executed, or
nothing if -t would not return ‘file’.

The -P option forces a path search for each name, even if -t would not return ‘file’.

If a command is hashed, -p and -P print the hashed value, not necessarily the file that appears first in
$PATH.

If the -a option is used, type returns all of the places that contain an executable named file. This
includes aliases and functions, if and only if the -p option is not also used.

If the -f option is used, type does not attempt to find shell functions, as with the command builtin.

The return status is zero if all of the names are found, non-zero if any are not found.

typeset

typeset [-afFrxi] [-p] [name[=value] …]

The typeset command is supplied for compatibility with the Korn shell; however, it has been
deprecated in favor of the declare builtin command.

ulimit

ulimit [-abcdefilmnpqrstuvxHST] [limit]

ulimit provides control over the resources available to processes started by the shell, on systems that
allow such control. If an option is given, it is interpreted as follows:
-S

Change and report the soft limit associated with a resource.

-H

Change and report the hard limit associated with a resource.

-a

All current limits are reported.

-b

The maximum socket buffer size.

-c

The maximum size of core files created.

-d

The maximum size of a process’s data segment.

-e

The maximum scheduling priority ("nice").

-f

The maximum size of files written by the shell and its children.

-i

The maximum number of pending signals.

-l

The maximum size that may be locked into memory.

-m

The maximum resident set size (many systems do not honor this limit).

-n

The maximum number of open file descriptors (most systems do not allow this value to be set).

-p

The pipe buffer size.

 -q

The maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues.

-r

The maximum real-time scheduling priority.

-s

The maximum stack size.

-t

The maximum amount of cpu time in seconds.

-u

The maximum number of processes available to a single user.

-v

The maximum amount of virtual memory available to the shell, and, on some systems, to its
children.

-x

The maximum number of file locks.

-T

The maximum number of threads.

If limit is given, it is the new value of the specified resource; the special limit values hard, soft, and
unlimited stand for the current hard limit, the current soft limit, and no limit, respectively. A hard
limit cannot be increased by a non-root user once it is set; a soft limit may be increased up to the value
of the hard limit. Otherwise, the current value of the soft limit for the specified resource is printed,
unless the -H option is supplied. When setting new limits, if neither -H nor -S is supplied, both the
hard and soft limits are set. If no option is given, then -f is assumed. Values are in 1024-byte
increments, except for -t, which is in seconds, -p, which is in units of 512-byte blocks, and -n and
-u, which are unscaled values.

The return status is zero unless an invalid option or argument is supplied, or an error occurs while
setting a new limit.

unalias

unalias [-a] [name … ]

Remove each name from the list of aliases. If -a is supplied, all aliases are removed. Aliases are
described in Aliases.
Next: Special Builtins, Previous: Bash Builtins, Up: Shell Builtin Commands [Contents][Index]

4.3 Modifying Shell Behavior

• The Set Builtin: Change the values of shell attributes and positional
parameters.

• The Shopt Modify shell optional behavior.

Builtin:

Next: The Shopt Builtin, Up: Modifying Shell Behavior [Contents][Index]

4.3.1 The Set Builtin

This builtin is so complicated that it deserves its own section. set allows you to change the values of shell
options and set the positional parameters, or to display the names and values of shell variables.

set

set [--abefhkmnptuvxBCEHPT] [-o option-name] [argument …]

set [+abefhkmnptuvxBCEHPT] [+o option-name] [argument …]

If no options or arguments are supplied, set displays the names and values of all shell variables and
functions, sorted according to the current locale, in a format that may be reused as input for setting or
resetting the currently-set variables. Read-only variables cannot be reset. In POSIX mode, only shell
variables are listed.

When options are supplied, they set or unset shell attributes. Options, if specified, have the following
meanings:

-a

Mark variables and function which are modified or created for export to the environment of
subsequent commands.

-b

Cause the status of terminated background jobs to be reported immediately, rather than before
printing the next primary prompt.

-e

Exit immediately if a pipeline (see Pipelines), which may consist of a single simple command
(see Simple Commands), a subshell command enclosed in parentheses (see Command Grouping),
or one of the commands executed as part of a command list enclosed by braces (see Command
Grouping) returns a non-zero status. The shell does not exit if the command that fails is part of
the command list immediately following a while or until keyword, part of the test in an if
statement, part of any command executed in a && or || list except the command following the
final && or ||, any command in a pipeline but the last, or if the command’s return status is being
 inverted with !. A trap on ERR, if set, is executed before the shell exits.

This option applies to the shell environment and each subshell environment separately (see
Command Execution Environment), and may cause subshells to exit before executing all the
commands in the subshell.

-f

Disable filename expansion (globbing).

-h

Locate and remember (hash) commands as they are looked up for execution. This option is
enabled by default.

-k

All arguments in the form of assignment statements are placed in the environment for a
command, not just those that precede the command name.

-m

Job control is enabled (see Job Control).

-n

Read commands but do not execute them; this may be used to check a script for syntax errors.
This option is ignored by interactive shells.

-o option-name

Set the option corresponding to option-name:

allexport

Same as -a.

braceexpand

Same as -B.

emacs

Use an emacs-style line editing interface (see Command Line Editing). This also affects
the editing interface used for read -e.

errexit

Same as -e.

errtrace
 Same as -E.

functrace

Same as -T.

hashall

Same as -h.

histexpand

Same as -H.

history

Enable command history, as described in Bash History Facilities. This option is on by

default in interactive shells.

ignoreeof

An interactive shell will not exit upon reading EOF.

keyword

Same as -k.

monitor

Same as -m.

noclobber

Same as -C.

noexec

Same as -n.

noglob

Same as -f.

nolog

Currently ignored.

notify

Same as -b.
 nounset

Same as -u.

onecmd

Same as -t.

physical

Same as -P.

pipefail

If set, the return value of a pipeline is the value of the last (rightmost) command to exit with
a non-zero status, or zero if all commands in the pipeline exit successfully. This option is
disabled by default.

posix

Change the behavior of Bash where the default operation differs from the POSIX standard to
match the standard (see Bash POSIX Mode). This is intended to make Bash behave as a
strict superset of that standard.

privileged

Same as -p.

verbose

Same as -v.

vi

Use a vi-style line editing interface. This also affects the editing interface used for read
-e.

xtrace

Same as -x.

-p

Turn on privileged mode. In this mode, the $BASH_ENV and $ENV files are not processed, shell
functions are not inherited from the environment, and the SHELLOPTS, BASHOPTS, CDPATH
and GLOBIGNORE variables, if they appear in the environment, are ignored. If the shell is started
with the effective user (group) id not equal to the real user (group) id, and the -p option is not
supplied, these actions are taken and the effective user id is set to the real user id. If the -p option
is supplied at startup, the effective user id is not reset. Turning this option off causes the effective
user and group ids to be set to the real user and group ids.
-t

Exit after reading and executing one command.

-u

Treat unset variables and parameters other than the special parameters ‘@’ or ‘*’ as an error when
performing parameter expansion. An error message will be written to the standard error, and a
non-interactive shell will exit.

-v

Print shell input lines as they are read.

-x

Print a trace of simple commands, for commands, case commands, select commands, and
arithmetic for commands and their arguments or associated word lists after they are expanded
and before they are executed. The value of the PS4 variable is expanded and the resultant value
is printed before the command and its expanded arguments.

-B

The shell will perform brace expansion (see Brace Expansion). This option is on by default.

-C

Prevent output redirection using ‘>’, ‘>&’, and ‘<>’ from overwriting existing files.

-E

If set, any trap on ERR is inherited by shell functions, command substitutions, and commands
executed in a subshell environment. The ERR trap is normally not inherited in such cases.

-H

Enable ‘!’ style history substitution (see History Interaction). This option is on by default for
interactive shells.

-P

If set, do not follow symbolic links when performing commands such as cd which change the
current directory. The physical directory is used instead. By default, Bash follows the logical
chain of directories when performing commands which change the current directory.

For example, if /usr/sys is a symbolic link to /usr/local/sys then:

$ cd /usr/sys; echo $PWD

/usr/sys
$ cd ..; pwd
/usr
 If set -P is on, then:

$ cd /usr/sys; echo $PWD

/usr/local/sys
$ cd ..; pwd
/usr/local

-T

If set, any trap on DEBUG and RETURN are inherited by shell functions, command substitutions,
and commands executed in a subshell environment. The DEBUG and RETURN traps are normally
not inherited in such cases.

--

If no arguments follow this option, then the positional parameters are unset. Otherwise, the
positional parameters are set to the arguments, even if some of them begin with a ‘-’.

Signal the end of options, cause all remaining arguments to be assigned to the positional
parameters. The -x and -v options are turned off. If there are no arguments, the positional
parameters remain unchanged.

Using ‘+’ rather than ‘-’ causes these options to be turned off. The options can also be used upon
invocation of the shell. The current set of options may be found in $-.

The remaining N arguments are positional parameters and are assigned, in order, to $1, $2, … $N. The
special parameter # is set to N.

The return status is always zero unless an invalid option is supplied.

Previous: The Set Builtin, Up: Modifying Shell Behavior [Contents][Index]

4.3.2 The Shopt Builtin

This builtin allows you to change additional shell optional behavior.

shopt

shopt [-pqsu] [-o] [optname …]

Toggle the values of variables controlling optional shell behavior. With no options, or with the -p
option, a list of all settable options is displayed, with an indication of whether or not each is set. The -p
option causes output to be displayed in a form that may be reused as input. Other options have the
following meanings:

-s

Enable (set) each optname.

-u

Disable (unset) each optname.

-q

Suppresses normal output; the return status indicates whether the optname is set or unset. If
multiple optname arguments are given with -q, the return status is zero if all optnames are
enabled; non-zero otherwise.

-o

Restricts the values of optname to be those defined for the -o option to the set builtin (see The
Set Builtin).

If either -s or -u is used with no optname arguments, the display is limited to those options which are
set or unset, respectively.

Unless otherwise noted, the shopt options are disabled (off) by default.

The return status when listing options is zero if all optnames are enabled, non-zero otherwise. When
setting or unsetting options, the return status is zero unless an optname is not a valid shell option.

The list of shopt options is:

autocd

If set, a command name that is the name of a directory is executed as if it were the argument to
the cd command. This option is only used by interactive shells.

cdable_vars

If this is set, an argument to the cd builtin command that is not a directory is assumed to be the
name of a variable whose value is the directory to change to.

cdspell

If set, minor errors in the spelling of a directory component in a cd command will be corrected.
The errors checked for are transposed characters, a missing character, and a character too many.
If a correction is found, the corrected path is printed, and the command proceeds. This option is
only used by interactive shells.

checkhash

If this is set, Bash checks that a command found in the hash table exists before trying to execute
it. If a hashed command no longer exists, a normal path search is performed.

checkjobs

If set, Bash lists the status of any stopped and running jobs before exiting an interactive shell. If
any jobs are running, this causes the exit to be deferred until a second exit is attempted without an
 intervening command (see Job Control). The shell always postpones exiting if any jobs are
stopped.

checkwinsize

If set, Bash checks the window size after each command and, if necessary, updates the values of
LINES and COLUMNS.

cmdhist

If set, Bash attempts to save all lines of a multiple-line command in the same history entry. This
allows easy re-editing of multi-line commands.

compat31

If set, Bash changes its behavior to that of version 3.1 with respect to quoted arguments to the
conditional command’s ‘=~’ operator.

compat32

If set, Bash changes its behavior to that of version 3.2 with respect to locale-specific string
comparison when using the ‘[[’ conditional command’s ‘<’ and ‘>’ operators. Bash versions
prior to bash-4.0 use ASCII collation and strcmp(3); bash-4.1 and later use the current locale’s
collation sequence and strcoll(3).

compat40

If set, Bash changes its behavior to that of version 4.0 with respect to locale-specific string
comparison when using the ‘[[’ conditional command’s ‘<’ and ‘>’ operators (see previous item)
and the effect of interrupting a command list.

compat41

If set, Bash, when in posix mode, treats a single quote in a double-quoted parameter expansion as
a special character. The single quotes must match (an even number) and the characters between
the single quotes are considered quoted. This is the behavior of POSIX mode through version 4.1.
The default Bash behavior remains as in previous versions.

dirspell

If set, Bash attempts spelling correction on directory names during word completion if the
directory name initially supplied does not exist.

dotglob

If set, Bash includes filenames beginning with a ‘.’ in the results of filename expansion.

execfail

If this is set, a non-interactive shell will not exit if it cannot execute the file specified as an
argument to the exec builtin command. An interactive shell does not exit if exec fails.
expand_aliases

If set, aliases are expanded as described below under Aliases, Aliases. This option is enabled by
default for interactive shells.

extdebug

If set, behavior intended for use by debuggers is enabled:

1. The -F option to the declare builtin (see Bash Builtins) displays the source file name
and line number corresponding to each function name supplied as an argument.
2. If the command run by the DEBUG trap returns a non-zero value, the next command is
skipped and not executed.
3. If the command run by the DEBUG trap returns a value of 2, and the shell is executing in a
subroutine (a shell function or a shell script executed by the . or source builtins), a call
to return is simulated.
4. BASH_ARGC and BASH_ARGV are updated as described in their descriptions (see Bash
Variables).
5. Function tracing is enabled: command substitution, shell functions, and subshells invoked
with ( command ) inherit the DEBUG and RETURN traps.
6. Error tracing is enabled: command substitution, shell functions, and subshells invoked
with ( command ) inherit the ERR trap.
extglob

If set, the extended pattern matching features described above (see Pattern Matching) are enabled.

extquote

If set, $'string' and $"string" quoting is performed within ${parameter} expansions

enclosed in double quotes. This option is enabled by default.

failglob

If set, patterns which fail to match filenames during filename expansion result in an expansion
error.

force_fignore

If set, the suffixes specified by the FIGNORE shell variable cause words to be ignored when
performing word completion even if the ignored words are the only possible completions. See
Bash Variables, for a description of FIGNORE. This option is enabled by default.

globstar

If set, the pattern ‘**’ used in a filename expansion context will match all files and zero or more
directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by a ‘/’, only directories and
subdirectories match.

gnu_errfmt

If set, shell error messages are written in the standard GNU error message format.
histappend

If set, the history list is appended to the file named by the value of the HISTFILE variable when
the shell exits, rather than overwriting the file.

histreedit

If set, and Readline is being used, a user is given the opportunity to re-edit a failed history
substitution.

histverify

If set, and Readline is being used, the results of history substitution are not immediately passed to
the shell parser. Instead, the resulting line is loaded into the Readline editing buffer, allowing
further modification.

hostcomplete

If set, and Readline is being used, Bash will attempt to perform hostname completion when a
word containing a ‘@’ is being completed (see Commands For Completion). This option is
enabled by default.

huponexit

If set, Bash will send SIGHUP to all jobs when an interactive login shell exits (see Signals).

interactive_comments

Allow a word beginning with ‘#’ to cause that word and all remaining characters on that line to
be ignored in an interactive shell. This option is enabled by default.

lastpipe

If set, and job control is not active, the shell runs the last command of a pipeline not executed in
the background in the current shell environment.

lithist

If enabled, and the cmdhist option is enabled, multi-line commands are saved to the history
with embedded newlines rather than using semicolon separators where possible.

login_shell

The shell sets this option if it is started as a login shell (see Invoking Bash). The value may not be
changed.

mailwarn

If set, and a file that Bash is checking for mail has been accessed since the last time it was
checked, the message "The mail in mailfile has been read" is displayed.
no_empty_cmd_completion

If set, and Readline is being used, Bash will not attempt to search the PATH for possible
completions when completion is attempted on an empty line.

nocaseglob

If set, Bash matches filenames in a case-insensitive fashion when performing filename expansion.

nocasematch

If set, Bash matches patterns in a case-insensitive fashion when performing matching while
executing case or [[ conditional commands.

nullglob

If set, Bash allows filename patterns which match no files to expand to a null string, rather than
themselves.

progcomp

If set, the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion) are enabled. This
option is enabled by default.

promptvars

If set, prompt strings undergo parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion,
and quote removal after being expanded as described below (see Printing a Prompt). This option
is enabled by default.

restricted_shell

The shell sets this option if it is started in restricted mode (see The Restricted Shell). The value
may not be changed. This is not reset when the startup files are executed, allowing the startup
files to discover whether or not a shell is restricted.

shift_verbose

If this is set, the shift builtin prints an error message when the shift count exceeds the number
of positional parameters.

sourcepath

If set, the source builtin uses the value of PATH to find the directory containing the file
supplied as an argument. This option is enabled by default.

xpg_echo

If set, the echo builtin expands backslash-escape sequences by default.

The return status when listing options is zero if all optnames are enabled, non-zero otherwise. When
 setting or unsetting options, the return status is zero unless an optname is not a valid shell option.

Previous: Modifying Shell Behavior, Up: Shell Builtin Commands [Contents][Index]

4.4 Special Builtins

For historical reasons, the POSIX standard has classified several builtin commands as special. When Bash is
executing in POSIX mode, the special builtins differ from other builtin commands in three respects:

1. Special builtins are found before shell functions during command lookup.
2. If a special builtin returns an error status, a non-interactive shell exits.
3. Assignment statements preceding the command stay in effect in the shell environment after the
command completes.

When Bash is not executing in POSIX mode, these builtins behave no differently than the rest of the Bash
builtin commands. The Bash POSIX mode is described in Bash POSIX Mode.

These are the POSIX special builtins:

break : . continue eval exec exit export readonly return set

shift trap unset

Next: Bash Features, Previous: Shell Builtin Commands, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

5 Shell Variables
• Bourne Shell Variables which Bash uses in the same way as the Bourne
Variables: Shell.

• Bash Variables: List of variables that exist in Bash.

This chapter describes the shell variables that Bash uses. Bash automatically assigns default values to a
number of variables.

Next: Bash Variables, Up: Shell Variables [Contents][Index]

5.1 Bourne Shell Variables

Bash uses certain shell variables in the same way as the Bourne shell. In some cases, Bash assigns a default
value to the variable.

CDPATH

A colon-separated list of directories used as a search path for the cd builtin command.

HOME
 The current user’s home directory; the default for the cd builtin command. The value of this variable is
also used by tilde expansion (see Tilde Expansion).

IFS

A list of characters that separate fields; used when the shell splits words as part of expansion.

MAIL

If this parameter is set to a filename or directory name and the MAILPATH variable is not set, Bash
informs the user of the arrival of mail in the specified file or Maildir-format directory.

MAILPATH

A colon-separated list of filenames which the shell periodically checks for new mail. Each list entry can
specify the message that is printed when new mail arrives in the mail file by separating the file name
from the message with a ‘?’. When used in the text of the message, $_ expands to the name of the
current mail file.

OPTARG

The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts builtin.

OPTIND

The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts builtin.

PATH

A colon-separated list of directories in which the shell looks for commands. A zero-length (null)
directory name in the value of PATH indicates the current directory. A null directory name may appear
as two adjacent colons, or as an initial or trailing colon.

PS1

The primary prompt string. The default value is ‘\s-\v\$ ’. See Printing a Prompt, for the complete
list of escape sequences that are expanded before PS1 is displayed.

PS2

The secondary prompt string. The default value is ‘> ’.

Previous: Bourne Shell Variables, Up: Shell Variables [Contents][Index]

5.2 Bash Variables

These variables are set or used by Bash, but other shells do not normally treat them specially.

A few variables used by Bash are described in different chapters: variables for controlling the job control
facilities (see Job Control Variables).

BASH

The full pathname used to execute the current instance of Bash.

BASHOPTS

A colon-separated list of enabled shell options. Each word in the list is a valid argument for the -s
option to the shopt builtin command (see The Shopt Builtin). The options appearing in BASHOPTS
are those reported as ‘on’ by ‘shopt’. If this variable is in the environment when Bash starts up, each
shell option in the list will be enabled before reading any startup files. This variable is readonly.

BASHPID

Expands to the process ID of the current Bash process. This differs from $$ under certain
circumstances, such as subshells that do not require Bash to be re-initialized.

BASH_ALIASES

An associative array variable whose members correspond to the internal list of aliases as maintained by
the alias builtin. (see Bourne Shell Builtins). Elements added to this array appear in the alias list;
unsetting array elements cause aliases to be removed from the alias list.

BASH_ARGC

An array variable whose values are the number of parameters in each frame of the current bash
execution call stack. The number of parameters to the current subroutine (shell function or script
executed with . or source) is at the top of the stack. When a subroutine is executed, the number of
parameters passed is pushed onto BASH_ARGC. The shell sets BASH_ARGC only when in extended
debugging mode (see The Shopt Builtin for a description of the extdebug option to the shopt
builtin).

BASH_ARGV

An array variable containing all of the parameters in the current bash execution call stack. The final
parameter of the last subroutine call is at the top of the stack; the first parameter of the initial call is at
the bottom. When a subroutine is executed, the parameters supplied are pushed onto BASH_ARGV. The
shell sets BASH_ARGV only when in extended debugging mode (see The Shopt Builtin for a
description of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin).

BASH_CMDS

An associative array variable whose members correspond to the internal hash table of commands as
maintained by the hash builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins). Elements added to this array appear in the
hash table; unsetting array elements cause commands to be removed from the hash table.

BASH_COMMAND

The command currently being executed or about to be executed, unless the shell is executing a
command as the result of a trap, in which case it is the command executing at the time of the trap.
BASH_ENV

If this variable is set when Bash is invoked to execute a shell script, its value is expanded and used as
the name of a startup file to read before executing the script. See Bash Startup Files.

BASH_EXECUTION_STRING

The command argument to the -c invocation option.

BASH_LINENO

An array variable whose members are the line numbers in source files where each corresponding
member of FUNCNAME was invoked. ${BASH_LINENO[$i]} is the line number in the source file
(${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]}) where ${FUNCNAME[$i]} was called (or ${BASH_LINENO[$i-
1]} if referenced within another shell function). Use LINENO to obtain the current line number.

BASH_REMATCH

An array variable whose members are assigned by the ‘=~’ binary operator to the [[ conditional
command (see Conditional Constructs). The element with index 0 is the portion of the string matching
the entire regular expression. The element with index n is the portion of the string matching the nth
parenthesized subexpression. This variable is read-only.

BASH_SOURCE

An array variable whose members are the source filenames where the corresponding shell function
names in the FUNCNAME array variable are defined. The shell function ${FUNCNAME[$i]} is
defined in the file ${BASH_SOURCE[$i]} and called from ${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]}

BASH_SUBSHELL

Incremented by one each time a subshell or subshell environment is spawned. The initial value is 0.

BASH_VERSINFO

A readonly array variable (see Arrays) whose members hold version information for this instance of
Bash. The values assigned to the array members are as follows:

BASH_VERSINFO[0]

The major version number (the release).

BASH_VERSINFO[1]

The minor version number (the version).

BASH_VERSINFO[2]

The patch level.

BASH_VERSINFO[3]
 The build version.

BASH_VERSINFO[4]

The release status (e.g., beta1).

BASH_VERSINFO[5]

The value of MACHTYPE.

BASH_VERSION

The version number of the current instance of Bash.

BASH_XTRACEFD

If set to an integer corresponding to a valid file descriptor, Bash will write the trace output generated
when ‘set -x’ is enabled to that file descriptor. This allows tracing output to be separated from
diagnostic and error messages. The file descriptor is closed when BASH_XTRACEFD is unset or
assigned a new value. Unsetting BASH_XTRACEFD or assigning it the empty string causes the trace
output to be sent to the standard error. Note that setting BASH_XTRACEFD to 2 (the standard error file
descriptor) and then unsetting it will result in the standard error being closed.

COLUMNS

Used by the select command to determine the terminal width when printing selection lists.
Automatically set upon receipt of a SIGWINCH.

COMP_CWORD

An index into ${COMP_WORDS} of the word containing the current cursor position. This variable is
available only in shell functions invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable
Completion).

COMP_LINE

The current command line. This variable is available only in shell functions and external commands
invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion).

COMP_POINT

The index of the current cursor position relative to the beginning of the current command. If the current
cursor position is at the end of the current command, the value of this variable is equal to $
{#COMP_LINE}. This variable is available only in shell functions and external commands invoked by
the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion).

COMP_TYPE

Set to an integer value corresponding to the type of completion attempted that caused a completion
function to be called: TAB, for normal completion, ‘?’, for listing completions after successive tabs,
‘!’, for listing alternatives on partial word completion, ‘@’, to list completions if the word is not
 unmodified, or ‘%’, for menu completion. This variable is available only in shell functions and external
commands invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion).

COMP_KEY

The key (or final key of a key sequence) used to invoke the current completion function.

COMP_WORDBREAKS

The set of characters that the Readline library treats as word separators when performing word
completion. If COMP_WORDBREAKS is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently
reset.

COMP_WORDS

An array variable consisting of the individual words in the current command line. The line is split into
words as Readline would split it, using COMP_WORDBREAKS as described above. This variable is
available only in shell functions invoked by the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable
Completion).

COMPREPLY

An array variable from which Bash reads the possible completions generated by a shell function
invoked by the programmable completion facility (see Programmable Completion).

COPROC

An array variable created to hold the file descriptors for output from and input to an unnamed
coprocess (see Coprocesses).

DIRSTACK

An array variable containing the current contents of the directory stack. Directories appear in the stack
in the order they are displayed by the dirs builtin. Assigning to members of this array variable may be
used to modify directories already in the stack, but the pushd and popd builtins must be used to add
and remove directories. Assignment to this variable will not change the current directory. If
DIRSTACK is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

EMACS

If Bash finds this variable in the environment when the shell starts with value ‘t’, it assumes that the
shell is running in an Emacs shell buffer and disables line editing.

ENV

Similar to BASH_ENV; used when the shell is invoked in POSIX Mode (see Bash POSIX Mode).

EUID

The numeric effective user id of the current user. This variable is readonly.
FCEDIT

The editor used as a default by the -e option to the fc builtin command.

FIGNORE

A colon-separated list of suffixes to ignore when performing filename completion. A file name whose
suffix matches one of the entries in FIGNORE is excluded from the list of matched file names. A
sample value is ‘.o:~’

FUNCNAME

An array variable containing the names of all shell functions currently in the execution call stack. The
element with index 0 is the name of any currently-executing shell function. The bottom-most element
(the one with the highest index) is "main". This variable exists only when a shell function is
executing. Assignments to FUNCNAME have no effect and return an error status. If FUNCNAME is unset,
it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

This variable can be used with BASH_LINENO and BASH_SOURCE. Each element of FUNCNAME has
corresponding elements in BASH_LINENO and BASH_SOURCE to describe the call stack. For
instance, ${FUNCNAME[$i]} was called from the file ${BASH_SOURCE[$i+1]} at line number
${BASH_LINENO[$i]}. The caller builtin displays the current call stack using this information.

FUNCNEST

If set to a numeric value greater than 0, defines a maximum function nesting level. Function
invocations that exceed this nesting level will cause the current command to abort.

GLOBIGNORE

A colon-separated list of patterns defining the set of filenames to be ignored by filename expansion. If a
filename matched by a filename expansion pattern also matches one of the patterns in GLOBIGNORE, it
is removed from the list of matches.

GROUPS

An array variable containing the list of groups of which the current user is a member. Assignments to
GROUPS have no effect and return an error status. If GROUPS is unset, it loses its special properties,
even if it is subsequently reset.

histchars

Up to three characters which control history expansion, quick substitution, and tokenization (see
History Interaction). The first character is the history expansion character, that is, the character which
signifies the start of a history expansion, normally ‘!’. The second character is the character which
signifies ‘quick substitution’ when seen as the first character on a line, normally ‘^’. The optional third
character is the character which indicates that the remainder of the line is a comment when found as the
first character of a word, usually ‘#’. The history comment character causes history substitution to be
skipped for the remaining words on the line. It does not necessarily cause the shell parser to treat the
rest of the line as a comment.
HISTCMD

The history number, or index in the history list, of the current command. If HISTCMD is unset, it loses
its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.

HISTCONTROL

A colon-separated list of values controlling how commands are saved on the history list. If the list of
values includes ‘ignorespace’, lines which begin with a space character are not saved in the history
list. A value of ‘ignoredups’ causes lines which match the previous history entry to not be saved. A
value of ‘ignoreboth’ is shorthand for ‘ignorespace’ and ‘ignoredups’. A value of
‘erasedups’ causes all previous lines matching the current line to be removed from the history list
before that line is saved. Any value not in the above list is ignored. If HISTCONTROL is unset, or does
not include a valid value, all lines read by the shell parser are saved on the history list, subject to the
value of HISTIGNORE. The second and subsequent lines of a multi-line compound command are not
tested, and are added to the history regardless of the value of HISTCONTROL.

HISTFILE

The name of the file to which the command history is saved. The default value is
~/.bash_history.

HISTFILESIZE

The maximum number of lines contained in the history file. When this variable is assigned a value, the
history file is truncated, if necessary, by removing the oldest entries, to contain no more than that
number of lines. The history file is also truncated to this size after writing it when an interactive shell
exits. The default value is 500.

HISTIGNORE

A colon-separated list of patterns used to decide which command lines should be saved on the history
list. Each pattern is anchored at the beginning of the line and must match the complete line (no implicit
‘*’ is appended). Each pattern is tested against the line after the checks specified by HISTCONTROL
are applied. In addition to the normal shell pattern matching characters, ‘&’ matches the previous
history line. ‘&’ may be escaped using a backslash; the backslash is removed before attempting a
match. The second and subsequent lines of a multi-line compound command are not tested, and are
added to the history regardless of the value of HISTIGNORE.

HISTIGNORE subsumes the function of HISTCONTROL. A pattern of ‘&’ is identical to

ignoredups, and a pattern of ‘[ ]*’ is identical to ignorespace. Combining these two patterns,
separating them with a colon, provides the functionality of ignoreboth.

HISTSIZE

The maximum number of commands to remember on the history list. The default value is 500.

HISTTIMEFORMAT

If this variable is set and not null, its value is used as a format string for strftime to print the time stamp
associated with each history entry displayed by the history builtin. If this variable is set, time
 stamps are written to the history file so they may be preserved across shell sessions. This uses the
history comment character to distinguish timestamps from other history lines.

HOSTFILE

Contains the name of a file in the same format as /etc/hosts that should be read when the shell
needs to complete a hostname. The list of possible hostname completions may be changed while the
shell is running; the next time hostname completion is attempted after the value is changed, Bash adds
the contents of the new file to the existing list. If HOSTFILE is set, but has no value, or does not name
a readable file, Bash attempts to read /etc/hosts to obtain the list of possible hostname
completions. When HOSTFILE is unset, the hostname list is cleared.

HOSTNAME

The name of the current host.

HOSTTYPE

A string describing the machine Bash is running on.

IGNOREEOF

Controls the action of the shell on receipt of an EOF character as the sole input. If set, the value denotes
the number of consecutive EOF characters that can be read as the first character on an input line before
the shell will exit. If the variable exists but does not have a numeric value (or has no value) then the
default is 10. If the variable does not exist, then EOF signifies the end of input to the shell. This is only
in effect for interactive shells.

INPUTRC

The name of the Readline initialization file, overriding the default of ~/.inputrc.

LANG

Used to determine the locale category for any category not specifically selected with a variable starting
with LC_.

LC_ALL

This variable overrides the value of LANG and any other LC_ variable specifying a locale category.

LC_COLLATE

This variable determines the collation order used when sorting the results of filename expansion, and
determines the behavior of range expressions, equivalence classes, and collating sequences within
filename expansion and pattern matching (see Filename Expansion).

LC_CTYPE

This variable determines the interpretation of characters and the behavior of character classes within
filename expansion and pattern matching (see Filename Expansion).
LC_MESSAGES

This variable determines the locale used to translate double-quoted strings preceded by a ‘$’ (see
Locale Translation).

LC_NUMERIC

This variable determines the locale category used for number formatting.

LINENO

The line number in the script or shell function currently executing.

LINES

Used by the select command to determine the column length for printing selection lists.
Automatically set upon receipt of a SIGWINCH.

MACHTYPE

A string that fully describes the system type on which Bash is executing, in the standard GNU cpu-
company-system format.

MAILCHECK

How often (in seconds) that the shell should check for mail in the files specified in the MAILPATH or
MAIL variables. The default is 60 seconds. When it is time to check for mail, the shell does so before
displaying the primary prompt. If this variable is unset, or set to a value that is not a number greater
than or equal to zero, the shell disables mail checking.

MAPFILE

An array variable created to hold the text read by the mapfile builtin when no variable name is
supplied.

OLDPWD

The previous working directory as set by the cd builtin.

OPTERR

If set to the value 1, Bash displays error messages generated by the getopts builtin command.

OSTYPE

A string describing the operating system Bash is running on.

PIPESTATUS

An array variable (see Arrays) containing a list of exit status values from the processes in the most-
recently-executed foreground pipeline (which may contain only a single command).
POSIXLY_CORRECT

If this variable is in the environment when bash starts, the shell enters POSIX mode (see Bash POSIX
Mode) before reading the startup files, as if the --posix invocation option had been supplied. If it is
set while the shell is running, bash enables POSIX mode, as if the command

set -o posix

had been executed.

PPID

The process ID of the shell’s parent process. This variable is readonly.

PROMPT_COMMAND

If set, the value is interpreted as a command to execute before the printing of each primary prompt
($PS1).

PROMPT_DIRTRIM

If set to a number greater than zero, the value is used as the number of trailing directory components to
retain when expanding the \w and \W prompt string escapes (see Printing a Prompt). Characters
removed are replaced with an ellipsis.

PS3

The value of this variable is used as the prompt for the select command. If this variable is not set,
the select command prompts with ‘#? ’

PS4

The value is the prompt printed before the command line is echoed when the -x option is set (see The
Set Builtin). The first character of PS4 is replicated multiple times, as necessary, to indicate multiple
levels of indirection. The default is ‘+ ’.

PWD

The current working directory as set by the cd builtin.

RANDOM

Each time this parameter is referenced, a random integer between 0 and 32767 is generated. Assigning
a value to this variable seeds the random number generator.

READLINE_LINE

The contents of the Readline line buffer, for use with ‘bind -x’ (see Bash Builtins).

READLINE_POINT
 The position of the insertion point in the Readline line buffer, for use with ‘bind -x’ (see Bash
Builtins).

REPLY

The default variable for the read builtin.

SECONDS

This variable expands to the number of seconds since the shell was started. Assignment to this variable
resets the count to the value assigned, and the expanded value becomes the value assigned plus the
number of seconds since the assignment.

SHELL

The full pathname to the shell is kept in this environment variable. If it is not set when the shell starts,
Bash assigns to it the full pathname of the current user’s login shell.

SHELLOPTS

A colon-separated list of enabled shell options. Each word in the list is a valid argument for the -o
option to the set builtin command (see The Set Builtin). The options appearing in SHELLOPTS are
those reported as ‘on’ by ‘set -o’. If this variable is in the environment when Bash starts up, each
shell option in the list will be enabled before reading any startup files. This variable is readonly.

SHLVL

Incremented by one each time a new instance of Bash is started. This is intended to be a count of how
deeply your Bash shells are nested.

TIMEFORMAT

The value of this parameter is used as a format string specifying how the timing information for
pipelines prefixed with the time reserved word should be displayed. The ‘%’ character introduces an
escape sequence that is expanded to a time value or other information. The escape sequences and their
meanings are as follows; the braces denote optional portions.

%%

A literal ‘%’.

%[p][l]R

The elapsed time in seconds.

%[p][l]U

The number of CPU seconds spent in user mode.

%[p][l]S
 The number of CPU seconds spent in system mode.

%P

The CPU percentage, computed as (%U + %S) / %R.

The optional p is a digit specifying the precision, the number of fractional digits after a decimal point.
A value of 0 causes no decimal point or fraction to be output. At most three places after the decimal
point may be specified; values of p greater than 3 are changed to 3. If p is not specified, the value 3 is
used.

The optional l specifies a longer format, including minutes, of the form MMmSS.FFs. The value of p
determines whether or not the fraction is included.

If this variable is not set, Bash acts as if it had the value

$'\nreal\t%3lR\nuser\t%3lU\nsys\t%3lS'

If the value is null, no timing information is displayed. A trailing newline is added when the format
string is displayed.

TMOUT

If set to a value greater than zero, TMOUT is treated as the default timeout for the read builtin (see
Bash Builtins). The select command (see Conditional Constructs) terminates if input does not arrive
after TMOUT seconds when input is coming from a terminal.

In an interactive shell, the value is interpreted as the number of seconds to wait for input after issuing
the primary prompt when the shell is interactive. Bash terminates after that number of seconds if input
does not arrive.

TMPDIR

If set, Bash uses its value as the name of a directory in which Bash creates temporary files for the
shell’s use.

UID

The numeric real user id of the current user. This variable is readonly.

Next: Job Control, Previous: Shell Variables, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

6 Bash Features
This section describes features unique to Bash.

• Invoking Bash: Command line options that you can give to Bash.

• Bash Startup Files: When and how Bash executes scripts.

• Interactive Shells: What an interactive shell is.

• Bash Conditional Primitives used in composing expressions for the test builtin.
Expressions:

• Shell Arithmetic: Arithmetic on shell variables.

• Aliases: Substituting one command for another.

• Arrays: Array Variables.

• The Directory Stack: History of visited directories.

• Printing a Prompt: Controlling the PS1 string.

• The Restricted Shell: A more controlled mode of shell execution.

• Bash POSIX Mode: Making Bash behave more closely to what the POSIX standard
specifies.

Next: Bash Startup Files, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.1 Invoking Bash

bash [long-opt] [-ir] [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] [argument …]
bash [long-opt] [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] -c string
[argument …]
bash [long-opt] -s [-abefhkmnptuvxdBCDHP] [-o option] [-O shopt_option] [argument …]

All of the single-character options used with the set builtin (see The Set Builtin) can be used as options
when the shell is invoked. In addition, there are several multi-character options that you can use. These
options must appear on the command line before the single-character options to be recognized.

--debugger

Arrange for the debugger profile to be executed before the shell starts. Turns on extended debugging
mode (see The Shopt Builtin for a description of the extdebug option to the shopt builtin).

--dump-po-strings

A list of all double-quoted strings preceded by ‘$’ is printed on the standard output in the GNU
gettext PO (portable object) file format. Equivalent to -D except for the output format.

--dump-strings

Equivalent to -D.
--help

Display a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--init-file filename
--rcfile filename

Execute commands from filename (instead of ~/.bashrc) in an interactive shell.

--login

Equivalent to -l.

--noediting

Do not use the GNU Readline library (see Command Line Editing) to read command lines when the
shell is interactive.

--noprofile

Don’t load the system-wide startup file /etc/profile or any of the personal initialization files
~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, or ~/.profile when Bash is invoked as a login shell.

--norc

Don’t read the ~/.bashrc initialization file in an interactive shell. This is on by default if the shell is
invoked as sh.

--posix

Change the behavior of Bash where the default operation differs from the POSIX standard to match the
standard. This is intended to make Bash behave as a strict superset of that standard. See Bash POSIX
Mode, for a description of the Bash POSIX mode.

--restricted

Make the shell a restricted shell (see The Restricted Shell).

--verbose

Equivalent to -v. Print shell input lines as they’re read.

--version

Show version information for this instance of Bash on the standard output and exit successfully.

There are several single-character options that may be supplied at invocation which are not available with the
set builtin.

-c string
 Read and execute commands from string after processing the options, then exit. Any remaining
arguments are assigned to the positional parameters, starting with $0.

-i

Force the shell to run interactively. Interactive shells are described in Interactive Shells.

-l

Make this shell act as if it had been directly invoked by login. When the shell is interactive, this is
equivalent to starting a login shell with ‘exec -l bash’. When the shell is not interactive, the login
shell startup files will be executed. ‘exec bash -l’ or ‘exec bash --login’ will replace the
current shell with a Bash login shell. See Bash Startup Files, for a description of the special behavior of
a login shell.

-r

Make the shell a restricted shell (see The Restricted Shell).

-s

If this option is present, or if no arguments remain after option processing, then commands are read
from the standard input. This option allows the positional parameters to be set when invoking an
interactive shell.

-D

A list of all double-quoted strings preceded by ‘$’ is printed on the standard output. These are the
strings that are subject to language translation when the current locale is not C or POSIX (see Locale
Translation). This implies the -n option; no commands will be executed.

[-+]O [shopt_option]

shopt_option is one of the shell options accepted by the shopt builtin (see The Shopt Builtin). If
shopt_option is present, -O sets the value of that option; +O unsets it. If shopt_option is not supplied,
the names and values of the shell options accepted by shopt are printed on the standard output. If the
invocation option is +O, the output is displayed in a format that may be reused as input.

--

A -- signals the end of options and disables further option processing. Any arguments after the -- are
treated as filenames and arguments.

A login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is ‘-’, or one invoked with the --login option.

An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments, unless -s is specified, without specifying
the -c option, and whose input and output are both connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)),
or one started with the -i option. See Interactive Shells, for more information.

If arguments remain after option processing, and neither the -c nor the -s option has been supplied, the first
argument is assumed to be the name of a file containing shell commands (see Shell Scripts). When Bash is
invoked in this fashion, $0 is set to the name of the file, and the positional parameters are set to the
remaining arguments. Bash reads and executes commands from this file, then exits. Bash’s exit status is the
exit status of the last command executed in the script. If no commands are executed, the exit status is 0.

Next: Interactive Shells, Previous: Invoking Bash, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.2 Bash Startup Files

This section describes how Bash executes its startup files. If any of the files exist but cannot be read, Bash
reports an error. Tildes are expanded in file names as described above under Tilde Expansion (see Tilde
Expansion).

Interactive shells are described in Interactive Shells.

Invoked as an interactive login shell, or with --login

When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it
first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it
looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and
executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be used
when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior.

When a login shell exits, Bash reads and executes commands from the file ~/.bash_logout, if it exists.

Invoked as an interactive non-login shell

When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, Bash reads and executes commands from
~/.bashrc, if that file exists. This may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file
option will force Bash to read and execute commands from file instead of ~/.bashrc.

So, typically, your ~/.bash_profile contains the line

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi

after (or before) any login-specific initializations.

Invoked non-interactively
When Bash is started non-interactively, to run a shell script, for example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV
in the environment, expands its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to
read and execute. Bash behaves as if the following command were executed:

if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi

but the value of the PATH variable is not used to search for the file name.

As noted above, if a non-interactive shell is invoked with the --login option, Bash attempts to read and
execute commands from the login shell startup files.
Invoked with name sh
If Bash is invoked with the name sh, it tries to mimic the startup behavior of historical versions of sh as
closely as possible, while conforming to the POSIX standard as well.

When invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first
attempts to read and execute commands from /etc/profile and ~/.profile, in that order. The
--noprofile option may be used to inhibit this behavior. When invoked as an interactive shell with the
name sh, Bash looks for the variable ENV, expands its value if it is defined, and uses the expanded value as
the name of a file to read and execute. Since a shell invoked as sh does not attempt to read and execute
commands from any other startup files, the --rcfile option has no effect. A non-interactive shell invoked
with the name sh does not attempt to read any other startup files.

When invoked as sh, Bash enters POSIX mode after the startup files are read.

Invoked in POSIX mode

When Bash is started in POSIX mode, as with the --posix command line option, it follows the POSIX
standard for startup files. In this mode, interactive shells expand the ENV variable and commands are read
and executed from the file whose name is the expanded value. No other startup files are read.

Invoked by remote shell daemon

Bash attempts to determine when it is being run with its standard input connected to a network connection, as
when executed by the remote shell daemon, usually rshd, or the secure shell daemon sshd. If Bash
determines it is being run in this fashion, it reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file
exists and is readable. It will not do this if invoked as sh. The --norc option may be used to inhibit this
behavior, and the --rcfile option may be used to force another file to be read, but rshd does not
generally invoke the shell with those options or allow them to be specified.

Invoked with unequal effective and real UID/GIDs

If Bash is started with the effective user (group) id not equal to the real user (group) id, and the -p option is
not supplied, no startup files are read, shell functions are not inherited from the environment, the
SHELLOPTS, BASHOPTS, CDPATH, and GLOBIGNORE variables, if they appear in the environment, are
ignored, and the effective user id is set to the real user id. If the -p option is supplied at invocation, the
startup behavior is the same, but the effective user id is not reset.

Next: Bash Conditional Expressions, Previous: Bash Startup Files, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.3 Interactive Shells

• What is an Interactive What determines whether a shell is
Shell?: Interactive.

• Is this Shell Interactive?: How to tell if a shell is interactive.

• Interactive Shell Behavior: What changes in a interactive shell?

Next: Is this Shell Interactive?, Up: Interactive Shells [Contents][Index]

6.3.1 What is an Interactive Shell?

An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments, unless -s is specified, without specifying
the -c option, and whose input and error output are both connected to terminals (as determined by
isatty(3)), or one started with the -i option.

An interactive shell generally reads from and writes to a user’s terminal.

The -s invocation option may be used to set the positional parameters when an interactive shell is started.

Next: Interactive Shell Behavior, Previous: What is an Interactive Shell?, Up: Interactive Shells [Contents]
[Index]

6.3.2 Is this Shell Interactive?

To determine within a startup script whether or not Bash is running interactively, test the value of the ‘-’
special parameter. It contains i when the shell is interactive. For example:

case "$-" in
*i*) echo This shell is interactive ;;
*) echo This shell is not interactive ;;
esac

Alternatively, startup scripts may examine the variable PS1; it is unset in non-interactive shells, and set in
interactive shells. Thus:

if [ -z "$PS1" ]; then
echo This shell is not interactive
else
echo This shell is interactive
fi

Previous: Is this Shell Interactive?, Up: Interactive Shells [Contents][Index]

6.3.3 Interactive Shell Behavior

When the shell is running interactively, it changes its behavior in several ways.

1. Startup files are read and executed as described in Bash Startup Files.
2. Job Control (see Job Control) is enabled by default. When job control is in effect, Bash ignores the
keyboard-generated job control signals SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, and SIGTSTP.
3. Bash expands and displays PS1 before reading the first line of a command, and expands and displays
PS2 before reading the second and subsequent lines of a multi-line command.
4. Bash executes the value of the PROMPT_COMMAND variable as a command before printing the
primary prompt, $PS1 (see Bash Variables).
5. Readline (see Command Line Editing) is used to read commands from the user’s terminal.
6. Bash inspects the value of the ignoreeof option to set -o instead of exiting immediately when it
receives an EOF on its standard input when reading a command (see The Set Builtin).
 7. Command history (see Bash History Facilities) and history expansion (see History Interaction) are
enabled by default. Bash will save the command history to the file named by $HISTFILE when an
interactive shell exits.
8. Alias expansion (see Aliases) is performed by default.
9. In the absence of any traps, Bash ignores SIGTERM (see Signals).
10.In the absence of any traps, SIGINT is caught and handled ((see Signals). SIGINT will interrupt
some shell builtins.
11.An interactive login shell sends a SIGHUP to all jobs on exit if the huponexit shell option has
been enabled (see Signals).
12.The -n invocation option is ignored, and ‘set -n’ has no effect (see The Set Builtin).
13.Bash will check for mail periodically, depending on the values of the MAIL, MAILPATH, and
MAILCHECK shell variables (see Bash Variables).
14.Expansion errors due to references to unbound shell variables after ‘set -u’ has been enabled will
not cause the shell to exit (see The Set Builtin).
15.The shell will not exit on expansion errors caused by var being unset or null in ${var:?word}
expansions (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
16.Redirection errors encountered by shell builtins will not cause the shell to exit.
17.When running in POSIX mode, a special builtin returning an error status will not cause the shell to exit
(see Bash POSIX Mode).
18.A failed exec will not cause the shell to exit (see Bourne Shell Builtins).
19.Parser syntax errors will not cause the shell to exit.
20.Simple spelling correction for directory arguments to the cd builtin is enabled by default (see the
description of the cdspell option to the shopt builtin in The Shopt Builtin).
21.The shell will check the value of the TMOUT variable and exit if a command is not read within the
specified number of seconds after printing $PS1 (see Bash Variables).

Next: Shell Arithmetic, Previous: Interactive Shells, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions

Conditional expressions are used by the [[ compound command and the test and [ builtin commands.

Expressions may be unary or binary. Unary expressions are often used to examine the status of a file. There
are string operators and numeric comparison operators as well. If the file argument to one of the primaries is
of the form /dev/fd/N, then file descriptor N is checked. If the file argument to one of the primaries is one
of /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout, or /dev/stderr, file descriptor 0, 1, or 2, respectively, is checked.

When used with ‘[[’, the ‘<’ and ‘>’ operators sort lexicographically using the current locale. The test
command uses ASCII ordering.

Unless otherwise specified, primaries that operate on files follow symbolic links and operate on the target of
the link, rather than the link itself.

-a file

True if file exists.

-b file
 True if file exists and is a block special file.

-c file

True if file exists and is a character special file.

-d file

True if file exists and is a directory.

-e file

True if file exists.

-f file

True if file exists and is a regular file.

-g file

True if file exists and its set-group-id bit is set.

-h file

True if file exists and is a symbolic link.

-k file

True if file exists and its "sticky" bit is set.

-p file

True if file exists and is a named pipe (FIFO).

-r file

True if file exists and is readable.

-s file

True if file exists and has a size greater than zero.

-t fd

True if file descriptor fd is open and refers to a terminal.

-u file

True if file exists and its set-user-id bit is set.

-w file
 True if file exists and is writable.

-x file

True if file exists and is executable.

-G file

True if file exists and is owned by the effective group id.

-L file

True if file exists and is a symbolic link.

-N file

True if file exists and has been modified since it was last read.

-O file

True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id.

-S file

True if file exists and is a socket.

file1 -ef file2

True if file1 and file2 refer to the same device and inode numbers.

file1 -nt file2

True if file1 is newer (according to modification date) than file2, or if file1 exists and file2 does not.

file1 -ot file2

True if file1 is older than file2, or if file2 exists and file1 does not.

-o optname

True if the shell option optname is enabled. The list of options appears in the description of the -o
option to the set builtin (see The Set Builtin).

-v varname

True if the shell variable varname is set (has been assigned a value).

-z string

True if the length of string is zero.

-n string
string

True if the length of string is non-zero.

string1 == string2
string1 = string2

True if the strings are equal. ‘=’ should be used with the test command for POSIX conformance.

string1 != string2

True if the strings are not equal.

string1 < string2

True if string1 sorts before string2 lexicographically.

string1 > string2

True if string1 sorts after string2 lexicographically.

arg1 OP arg2

OP is one of ‘-eq’, ‘-ne’, ‘-lt’, ‘-le’, ‘-gt’, or ‘-ge’. These arithmetic binary operators return
true if arg1 is equal to, not equal to, less than, less than or equal to, greater than, or greater than or
equal to arg2, respectively. Arg1 and arg2 may be positive or negative integers.

Next: Aliases, Previous: Bash Conditional Expressions, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.5 Shell Arithmetic

The shell allows arithmetic expressions to be evaluated, as one of the shell expansions or by the let and the
-i option to the declare builtins.

Evaluation is done in fixed-width integers with no check for overflow, though division by 0 is trapped and
flagged as an error. The operators and their precedence, associativity, and values are the same as in the C
language. The following list of operators is grouped into levels of equal-precedence operators. The levels are
listed in order of decreasing precedence.

id++ id--

variable post-increment and post-decrement

++id --id

variable pre-increment and pre-decrement

- +
 unary minus and plus

! ~

logical and bitwise negation

**

exponentiation

* / %

multiplication, division, remainder

+ -

addition, subtraction

<< >>

left and right bitwise shifts

<= >= < >

comparison

== !=

equality and inequality

&

bitwise AND

bitwise exclusive OR

bitwise OR

&&

logical AND

||

logical OR

expr ? expr : expr

 conditional operator

= *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= &= ^= |=

assignment

expr1 , expr2

comma

Shell variables are allowed as operands; parameter expansion is performed before the expression is
evaluated. Within an expression, shell variables may also be referenced by name without using the parameter
expansion syntax. A shell variable that is null or unset evaluates to 0 when referenced by name without using
the parameter expansion syntax. The value of a variable is evaluated as an arithmetic expression when it is
referenced, or when a variable which has been given the integer attribute using ‘declare -i’ is assigned a
value. A null value evaluates to 0. A shell variable need not have its integer attribute turned on to be used in
an expression.

Constants with a leading 0 are interpreted as octal numbers. A leading ‘0x’ or ‘0X’ denotes hexadecimal.
Otherwise, numbers take the form [base#]n, where the optional base is a decimal number between 2 and 64
representing the arithmetic base, and n is a number in that base. If base# is omitted, then base 10 is used. The
digits greater than 9 are represented by the lowercase letters, the uppercase letters, ‘@’, and ‘_’, in that order.
If base is less than or equal to 36, lowercase and uppercase letters may be used interchangeably to represent
numbers between 10 and 35.

Operators are evaluated in order of precedence. Sub-expressions in parentheses are evaluated first and may
override the precedence rules above.

Next: Arrays, Previous: Shell Arithmetic, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.6 Aliases
Aliases allow a string to be substituted for a word when it is used as the first word of a simple command. The
shell maintains a list of aliases that may be set and unset with the alias and unalias builtin commands.

The first word of each simple command, if unquoted, is checked to see if it has an alias. If so, that word is
replaced by the text of the alias. The characters ‘/’, ‘$’, ‘`’, ‘=’ and any of the shell metacharacters or
quoting characters listed above may not appear in an alias name. The replacement text may contain any valid
shell input, including shell metacharacters. The first word of the replacement text is tested for aliases, but a
word that is identical to an alias being expanded is not expanded a second time. This means that one may
alias ls to "ls -F", for instance, and Bash does not try to recursively expand the replacement text. If the
last character of the alias value is a space or tab character, then the next command word following the alias is
also checked for alias expansion.

Aliases are created and listed with the alias command, and removed with the unalias command.

There is no mechanism for using arguments in the replacement text, as in csh. If arguments are needed, a
shell function should be used (see Shell Functions).

Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the expand_aliases shell option is set
using shopt (see The Shopt Builtin).

The rules concerning the definition and use of aliases are somewhat confusing. Bash always reads at least
one complete line of input before executing any of the commands on that line. Aliases are expanded when a
command is read, not when it is executed. Therefore, an alias definition appearing on the same line as
another command does not take effect until the next line of input is read. The commands following the alias
definition on that line are not affected by the new alias. This behavior is also an issue when functions are
executed. Aliases are expanded when a function definition is read, not when the function is executed, because
a function definition is itself a compound command. As a consequence, aliases defined in a function are not
available until after that function is executed. To be safe, always put alias definitions on a separate line, and
do not use alias in compound commands.

For almost every purpose, shell functions are preferred over aliases.

Next: The Directory Stack, Previous: Aliases, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.7 Arrays
Bash provides one-dimensional indexed and associative array variables. Any variable may be used as an
indexed array; the declare builtin will explicitly declare an array. There is no maximum limit on the size
of an array, nor any requirement that members be indexed or assigned contiguously. Indexed arrays are
referenced using integers (including arithmetic expressions (see Shell Arithmetic) and are zero-based;
associative arrays use arbitrary strings.

An indexed array is created automatically if any variable is assigned to using the syntax

name[subscript]=value

The subscript is treated as an arithmetic expression that must evaluate to a number. If subscript evaluates to a
number less than zero, it is used as an offset from one greater than the array’s maximum index (so a subcript
of -1 refers to the last element of the array). To explicitly declare an array, use

declare -a name

The syntax

declare -a name[subscript]

is also accepted; the subscript is ignored.

Associative arrays are created using

declare -A name.

Attributes may be specified for an array variable using the declare and readonly builtins. Each attribute
applies to all members of an array.

Arrays are assigned to using compound assignments of the form

name=(value1 … valuen)
where each value is of the form [subscript]=string. Indexed array assignments do not require the
bracket and subscript. When assigning to indexed arrays, if the optional subscript is supplied, that index is
assigned to; otherwise the index of the element assigned is the last index assigned to by the statement plus
one. Indexing starts at zero.

When assigning to an associative array, the subscript is required.

This syntax is also accepted by the declare builtin. Individual array elements may be assigned to using the
name[subscript]=value syntax introduced above.

Any element of an array may be referenced using ${name[subscript]}. The braces are required to avoid
conflicts with the shell’s filename expansion operators. If the subscript is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the word expands to all
members of the array name. These subscripts differ only when the word appears within double quotes. If the
word is double-quoted, ${name[*]} expands to a single word with the value of each array member
separated by the first character of the IFS variable, and ${name[@]} expands each element of name to a
separate word. When there are no array members, ${name[@]} expands to nothing. If the double-quoted
expansion occurs within a word, the expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning part of the
original word, and the expansion of the last parameter is joined with the last part of the original word. This is
analogous to the expansion of the special parameters ‘@’ and ‘*’. ${#name[subscript]} expands to the
length of ${name[subscript]}. If subscript is ‘@’ or ‘*’, the expansion is the number of elements in the
array. Referencing an array variable without a subscript is equivalent to referencing with a subscript of 0.

An array variable is considered set if a subscript has been assigned a value. The null string is a valid value.

The unset builtin is used to destroy arrays. unset name[subscript] destroys the array element at index
subscript. Care must be taken to avoid unwanted side effects caused by filename expansion. unset name,
where name is an array, removes the entire array. A subscript of ‘*’ or ‘@’ also removes the entire array.

The declare, local, and readonly builtins each accept a -a option to specify an indexed array and a
-A option to specify an associative array. If both options are supplied, -A takes precedence. The read
builtin accepts a -a option to assign a list of words read from the standard input to an array, and can read
values from the standard input into individual array elements. The set and declare builtins display array
values in a way that allows them to be reused as input.

Next: Printing a Prompt, Previous: Arrays, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.8 The Directory Stack

• Directory Stack Bash builtin commands to manipulate the directory
Builtins: stack.

The directory stack is a list of recently-visited directories. The pushd builtin adds directories to the stack as
it changes the current directory, and the popd builtin removes specified directories from the stack and
changes the current directory to the directory removed. The dirs builtin displays the contents of the
directory stack.

The contents of the directory stack are also visible as the value of the DIRSTACK shell variable.
Up: The Directory Stack [Contents][Index]

6.8.1 Directory Stack Builtins

dirs

dirs [+N | -N] [-clpv]

Display the list of currently remembered directories. Directories are added to the list with the pushd
command; the popd command removes directories from the list.

+N

Displays the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs when invoked
without options), starting with zero.

-N

Displays the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs when invoked
without options), starting with zero.

-c

Clears the directory stack by deleting all of the elements.

-l

Produces a longer listing; the default listing format uses a tilde to denote the home directory.

-p

Causes dirs to print the directory stack with one entry per line.

-v

Causes dirs to print the directory stack with one entry per line, prefixing each entry with its
index in the stack.

popd

popd [+N | -N] [-n]

Remove the top entry from the directory stack, and cd to the new top directory. When no arguments
are given, popd removes the top directory from the stack and performs a cd to the new top directory.
The elements are numbered from 0 starting at the first directory listed with dirs; i.e., popd is
equivalent to popd +0.

+N

Removes the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs), starting with zero.
 -N

Removes the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs), starting with
zero.

-n

Suppresses the normal change of directory when removing directories from the stack, so that only
the stack is manipulated.

pushd

pushd [-n] [+N | -N | dir ]

Save the current directory on the top of the directory stack and then cd to dir. With no arguments,
pushd exchanges the top two directories.

-n

Suppresses the normal change of directory when adding directories to the stack, so that only the
stack is manipulated.

+N

Brings the Nth directory (counting from the left of the list printed by dirs, starting with zero) to
the top of the list by rotating the stack.

-N

Brings the Nth directory (counting from the right of the list printed by dirs, starting with zero)
to the top of the list by rotating the stack.

dir

Makes the current working directory be the top of the stack, and then executes the equivalent of
‘cd dir’. cds to dir.

Next: The Restricted Shell, Previous: The Directory Stack, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.9 Controlling the Prompt

The value of the variable PROMPT_COMMAND is examined just before Bash prints each primary prompt. If
PROMPT_COMMAND is set and has a non-null value, then the value is executed just as if it had been typed on
the command line.

In addition, the following table describes the special characters which can appear in the prompt variables:

\a

A bell character.
\d

The date, in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26").

\D{format}

The format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty
format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required.

\e

An escape character.

\h

The hostname, up to the first ‘.’.

\H

The hostname.

\j

The number of jobs currently managed by the shell.

\l

The basename of the shell’s terminal device name.

\n

A newline.

\r

A carriage return.

\s

The name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash).

\t

The time, in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format.

\T

The time, in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format.

\@
 The time, in 12-hour am/pm format.

\A

The time, in 24-hour HH:MM format.

\u

The username of the current user.

\v

The version of Bash (e.g., 2.00)

\V

The release of Bash, version + patchlevel (e.g., 2.00.0)

\w

The current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde (uses the $PROMPT_DIRTRIM
variable).

\W

The basename of $PWD, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde.

\!

The history number of this command.

\#

The command number of this command.

\$

If the effective uid is 0, #, otherwise $.

\nnn

The character whose ASCII code is the octal value nnn.

\\

A backslash.

\[

Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. This could be used to embed a terminal control sequence
into the prompt.
\]

End a sequence of non-printing characters.

The command number and the history number are usually different: the history number of a command is its
position in the history list, which may include commands restored from the history file (see Bash History
Facilities), while the command number is the position in the sequence of commands executed during the
current shell session.

After the string is decoded, it is expanded via parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic
expansion, and quote removal, subject to the value of the promptvars shell option (see Bash Builtins).

Next: Bash POSIX Mode, Previous: Printing a Prompt, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.10 The Restricted Shell

If Bash is started with the name rbash, or the --restricted or -r option is supplied at invocation, the
shell becomes restricted. A restricted shell is used to set up an environment more controlled than the standard
shell. A restricted shell behaves identically to bash with the exception that the following are disallowed or
not performed:

• Changing directories with the cd builtin.

• Setting or unsetting the values of the SHELL, PATH, ENV, or BASH_ENV variables.
• Specifying command names containing slashes.
• Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the . builtin command.
• Specifying a filename containing a slash as an argument to the -p option to the hash builtin
command.
• Importing function definitions from the shell environment at startup.
• Parsing the value of SHELLOPTS from the shell environment at startup.
• Redirecting output using the ‘>’, ‘>|’, ‘<>’, ‘>&’, ‘&>’, and ‘>>’ redirection operators.
• Using the exec builtin to replace the shell with another command.
• Adding or deleting builtin commands with the -f and -d options to the enable builtin.
• Using the enable builtin command to enable disabled shell builtins.
• Specifying the -p option to the command builtin.
• Turning off restricted mode with ‘set +r’ or ‘set +o restricted’.

These restrictions are enforced after any startup files are read.

When a command that is found to be a shell script is executed (see Shell Scripts), rbash turns off any
restrictions in the shell spawned to execute the script.

Previous: The Restricted Shell, Up: Bash Features [Contents][Index]

6.11 Bash POSIX Mode

Starting Bash with the --posix command-line option or executing ‘set -o posix’ while Bash is
running will cause Bash to conform more closely to the POSIX standard by changing the behavior to match
that specified by POSIX in areas where the Bash default differs.
When invoked as sh, Bash enters POSIX mode after reading the startup files.

The following list is what’s changed when ‘POSIX mode’ is in effect:

1. When a command in the hash table no longer exists, Bash will re-search $PATH to find the new
location. This is also available with ‘shopt -s checkhash’.
2. The message printed by the job control code and builtins when a job exits with a non-zero status is
‘Done(status)’.
3. The message printed by the job control code and builtins when a job is stopped is ‘Stopped(signame)’,
where signame is, for example, SIGTSTP.
4. The bg builtin uses the required format to describe each job placed in the background, which does not
include an indication of whether the job is the current or previous job.
5. Reserved words appearing in a context where reserved words are recognized do not undergo alias
expansion.
6. The POSIX PS1 and PS2 expansions of ‘!’ to the history number and ‘!!’ to ‘!’ are enabled, and
parameter expansion is performed on the values of PS1 and PS2 regardless of the setting of the
promptvars option.
7. The POSIX startup files are executed ($ENV) rather than the normal Bash files.
8. Tilde expansion is only performed on assignments preceding a command name, rather than on all
assignment statements on the line.
9. The default history file is ~/.sh_history (this is the default value of $HISTFILE).
10.The output of ‘kill -l’ prints all the signal names on a single line, separated by spaces, without
the ‘SIG’ prefix.
11.The kill builtin does not accept signal names with a ‘SIG’ prefix.
12.Non-interactive shells exit if filename in . filename is not found.
13.Non-interactive shells exit if a syntax error in an arithmetic expansion results in an invalid expression.
14.Non-interactive shells exit if there is a syntax error in a script read with the . or source builtins, or
in a string processed by the eval builtin.
15.Redirection operators do not perform filename expansion on the word in the redirection unless the
shell is interactive.
16.Redirection operators do not perform word splitting on the word in the redirection.
17.Function names must be valid shell names. That is, they may not contain characters other than letters,
digits, and underscores, and may not start with a digit. Declaring a function with an invalid name
causes a fatal syntax error in non-interactive shells.
18.POSIX special builtins are found before shell functions during command lookup.
19.The time reserved word may be used by itself as a command. When used in this way, it displays
timing statistics for the shell and its completed children. The TIMEFORMAT variable controls the
format of the timing information.
20.When parsing and expanding a ${…} expansion that appears within double quotes, single quotes are
no longer special and cannot be used to quote a closing brace or other special character, unless the
operator is one of those defined to perform pattern removal. In this case, they do not have to appear as
matched pairs.
21.The parser does not recognize time as a reserved word if the next token begins with a ‘-’.
22.If a POSIX special builtin returns an error status, a non-interactive shell exits. The fatal errors are those
listed in the POSIX standard, and include things like passing incorrect options, redirection errors,
variable assignment errors for assignments preceding the command name, and so on.
23.A non-interactive shell exits with an error status if a variable assignment error occurs when no
command name follows the assignment statements. A variable assignment error occurs, for example,
when trying to assign a value to a readonly variable.
24.A non-interactive shell exists with an error status if a variable assignment error occurs in an
assignment statement preceding a special builtin, but not with any other simple command.
 25.A non-interactive shell exits with an error status if the iteration variable in a for statement or the
selection variable in a select statement is a readonly variable.
26.Process substitution is not available.
27.Assignment statements preceding POSIX special builtins persist in the shell environment after the
builtin completes.
28.Assignment statements preceding shell function calls persist in the shell environment after the
function returns, as if a POSIX special builtin command had been executed.
29.The export and readonly builtin commands display their output in the format required by POSIX.
30.The trap builtin displays signal names without the leading SIG.
31.The trap builtin doesn’t check the first argument for a possible signal specification and revert the
signal handling to the original disposition if it is, unless that argument consists solely of digits and is a
valid signal number. If users want to reset the handler for a given signal to the original disposition,
they should use ‘-’ as the first argument.
32.The . and source builtins do not search the current directory for the filename argument if it is not
found by searching PATH.
33.Subshells spawned to execute command substitutions inherit the value of the -e option from the
parent shell. When not in POSIX mode, Bash clears the -e option in such subshells.
34.Alias expansion is always enabled, even in non-interactive shells.
35.When the alias builtin displays alias definitions, it does not display them with a leading ‘alias ’
unless the -p option is supplied.
36.When the set builtin is invoked without options, it does not display shell function names and
definitions.
37.When the set builtin is invoked without options, it displays variable values without quotes, unless
they contain shell metacharacters, even if the result contains nonprinting characters.
38.When the cd builtin is invoked in logical mode, and the pathname constructed from $PWD and the
directory name supplied as an argument does not refer to an existing directory, cd will fail instead of
falling back to physical mode.
39.The pwd builtin verifies that the value it prints is the same as the current directory, even if it is not
asked to check the file system with the -P option.
40.When listing the history, the fc builtin does not include an indication of whether or not a history
entry has been modified.
41.The default editor used by fc is ed.
42.The type and command builtins will not report a non-executable file as having been found, though
the shell will attempt to execute such a file if it is the only so-named file found in $PATH.
43.The vi editing mode will invoke the vi editor directly when the ‘v’ command is run, instead of
checking $VISUAL and $EDITOR.
44.When the xpg_echo option is enabled, Bash does not attempt to interpret any arguments to echo as
options. Each argument is displayed, after escape characters are converted.
45.The ulimit builtin uses a block size of 512 bytes for the -c and -f options.
46.The arrival of SIGCHLD when a trap is set on SIGCHLD does not interrupt the wait builtin and
cause it to return immediately. The trap command is run once for each child that exits.

There is other POSIX behavior that Bash does not implement by default even when in POSIX mode.
Specifically:

1. The fc builtin checks $EDITOR as a program to edit history entries if FCEDIT is unset, rather than
defaulting directly to ed. fc uses ed if EDITOR is unset.
2. As noted above, Bash requires the xpg_echo option to be enabled for the echo builtin to be fully
conformant.
Bash can be configured to be POSIX-conformant by default, by specifying the --enable-strict-
posix-default to configure when building (see Optional Features).

Next: Command Line Editing, Previous: Bash Features, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

7 Job Control
This chapter discusses what job control is, how it works, and how Bash allows you to access its facilities.

• Job Control Basics: How job control works.

• Job Control Builtins: Bash builtin commands used to interact with job
control.

• Job Control Variables Bash uses to customize job control.

Variables:

Next: Job Control Builtins, Up: Job Control [Contents][Index]

7.1 Job Control Basics

Job control refers to the ability to selectively stop (suspend) the execution of processes and continue (resume)
their execution at a later point. A user typically employs this facility via an interactive interface supplied
jointly by the operating system kernel’s terminal driver and Bash.

The shell associates a job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of currently executing jobs, which may be listed
with the jobs command. When Bash starts a job asynchronously, it prints a line that looks like:

[1] 25647

indicating that this job is job number 1 and that the process ID of the last process in the pipeline associated
with this job is 25647. All of the processes in a single pipeline are members of the same job. Bash uses the
job abstraction as the basis for job control.

To facilitate the implementation of the user interface to job control, the operating system maintains the notion
of a current terminal process group ID. Members of this process group (processes whose process group ID is
equal to the current terminal process group ID) receive keyboard-generated signals such as SIGINT. These
processes are said to be in the foreground. Background processes are those whose process group ID differs
from the terminal’s; such processes are immune to keyboard-generated signals. Only foreground processes
are allowed to read from or, if the user so specifies with stty tostop, write to the terminal. Background
processes which attempt to read from (write to when stty tostop is in effect) the terminal are sent a
SIGTTIN (SIGTTOU) signal by the kernel’s terminal driver, which, unless caught, suspends the process.

If the operating system on which Bash is running supports job control, Bash contains facilities to use it.
Typing the suspend character (typically ‘^Z’, Control-Z) while a process is running causes that process to be
stopped and returns control to Bash. Typing the delayed suspend character (typically ‘^Y’, Control-Y) causes
the process to be stopped when it attempts to read input from the terminal, and control to be returned to Bash.
The user then manipulates the state of this job, using the bg command to continue it in the background, the
fg command to continue it in the foreground, or the kill command to kill it. A ‘^Z’ takes effect
immediately, and has the additional side effect of causing pending output and typeahead to be discarded.

There are a number of ways to refer to a job in the shell. The character ‘%’ introduces a job specification
(jobspec).

Job number n may be referred to as ‘%n’. The symbols ‘%%’ and ‘%+’ refer to the shell’s notion of the current
job, which is the last job stopped while it was in the foreground or started in the background. A single ‘%’
(with no accompanying job specification) also refers to the current job. The previous job may be referenced
using ‘%-’. If there is only a single job, ‘%+’ and ‘%-’ can both be used to refer to that job. In output
pertaining to jobs (e.g., the output of the jobs command), the current job is always flagged with a ‘+’, and
the previous job with a ‘-’.

A job may also be referred to using a prefix of the name used to start it, or using a substring that appears in its
command line. For example, ‘%ce’ refers to a stopped ce job. Using ‘%?ce’, on the other hand, refers to any
job containing the string ‘ce’ in its command line. If the prefix or substring matches more than one job, Bash
reports an error.

Simply naming a job can be used to bring it into the foreground: ‘%1’ is a synonym for ‘fg %1’, bringing
job 1 from the background into the foreground. Similarly, ‘%1 &’ resumes job 1 in the background,
equivalent to ‘bg %1’

The shell learns immediately whenever a job changes state. Normally, Bash waits until it is about to print a
prompt before reporting changes in a job’s status so as to not interrupt any other output. If the -b option to
the set builtin is enabled, Bash reports such changes immediately (see The Set Builtin). Any trap on
SIGCHLD is executed for each child process that exits.

If an attempt to exit Bash is made while jobs are stopped, (or running, if the checkjobs option is enabled –
see The Shopt Builtin), the shell prints a warning message, and if the checkjobs option is enabled, lists the
jobs and their statuses. The jobs command may then be used to inspect their status. If a second attempt to
exit is made without an intervening command, Bash does not print another warning, and any stopped jobs are
terminated.

Next: Job Control Variables, Previous: Job Control Basics, Up: Job Control [Contents][Index]

7.2 Job Control Builtins

bg

bg [jobspec …]

Resume each suspended job jobspec in the background, as if it had been started with ‘&’. If jobspec is
not supplied, the current job is used. The return status is zero unless it is run when job control is not
enabled, or, when run with job control enabled, any jobspec was not found or specifies a job that was
started without job control.

fg

fg [jobspec]
 Resume the job jobspec in the foreground and make it the current job. If jobspec is not supplied, the
current job is used. The return status is that of the command placed into the foreground, or non-zero if
run when job control is disabled or, when run with job control enabled, jobspec does not specify a valid
job or jobspec specifies a job that was started without job control.

jobs

jobs [-lnprs] [jobspec]

jobs -x command [arguments]

The first form lists the active jobs. The options have the following meanings:

-l

List process IDs in addition to the normal information.

-n

Display information only about jobs that have changed status since the user was last notified of
their status.

-p

List only the process ID of the job’s process group leader.

-r

Restrict output to running jobs.

-s

Restrict output to stopped jobs.

If jobspec is given, output is restricted to information about that job. If jobspec is not supplied, the
status of all jobs is listed.

If the -x option is supplied, jobs replaces any jobspec found in command or arguments with the
corresponding process group ID, and executes command, passing it arguments, returning its exit status.

kill

kill [-s sigspec] [-n signum] [-sigspec] jobspec or pid

kill -l [exit_status]

Send a signal specified by sigspec or signum to the process named by job specification jobspec or
process ID pid. sigspec is either a case-insensitive signal name such as SIGINT (with or without the
SIG prefix) or a signal number; signum is a signal number. If sigspec and signum are not present,
SIGTERM is used. The -l option lists the signal names. If any arguments are supplied when -l is
given, the names of the signals corresponding to the arguments are listed, and the return status is zero.
exit_status is a number specifying a signal number or the exit status of a process terminated by a signal.
The return status is zero if at least one signal was successfully sent, or non-zero if an error occurs or an
invalid option is encountered.
wait

wait [jobspec or pid ...]

Wait until the child process specified by each process ID pid or job specification jobspec exits and
return the exit status of the last command waited for. If a job spec is given, all processes in the job are
waited for. If no arguments are given, all currently active child processes are waited for, and the return
status is zero. If neither jobspec nor pid specifies an active child process of the shell, the return status is
127.

disown

disown [-ar] [-h] [jobspec …]

Without options, each jobspec is removed from the table of active jobs. If the -h option is given, the
job is not removed from the table, but is marked so that SIGHUP is not sent to the job if the shell
receives a SIGHUP. If jobspec is not present, and neither the -a nor -r option is supplied, the current
job is used. If no jobspec is supplied, the -a option means to remove or mark all jobs; the -r option
without a jobspec argument restricts operation to running jobs.

suspend

suspend [-f]

Suspend the execution of this shell until it receives a SIGCONT signal. A login shell cannot be
suspended; the -f option can be used to override this and force the suspension.

When job control is not active, the kill and wait builtins do not accept jobspec arguments. They must be
supplied process IDs.

Previous: Job Control Builtins, Up: Job Control [Contents][Index]

7.3 Job Control Variables

auto_resume

This variable controls how the shell interacts with the user and job control. If this variable exists then
single word simple commands without redirections are treated as candidates for resumption of an
existing job. There is no ambiguity allowed; if there is more than one job beginning with the string
typed, then the most recently accessed job will be selected. The name of a stopped job, in this context,
is the command line used to start it. If this variable is set to the value ‘exact’, the string supplied must
match the name of a stopped job exactly; if set to ‘substring’, the string supplied needs to match a
substring of the name of a stopped job. The ‘substring’ value provides functionality analogous to
the ‘%?’ job ID (see Job Control Basics). If set to any other value, the supplied string must be a prefix
of a stopped job’s name; this provides functionality analogous to the ‘%’ job ID.

Next: Using History Interactively, Previous: Job Control, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
8 Command Line Editing
This chapter describes the basic features of the GNU command line editing interface. Command line editing is
provided by the Readline library, which is used by several different programs, including Bash. Command line
editing is enabled by default when using an interactive shell, unless the --noediting option is supplied at
shell invocation. Line editing is also used when using the -e option to the read builtin command (see Bash
Builtins). By default, the line editing commands are similar to those of Emacs. A vi-style line editing
interface is also available. Line editing can be enabled at any time using the -o emacs or -o vi options to
the set builtin command (see The Set Builtin), or disabled using the +o emacs or +o vi options to set.

• Introduction and Notation: Notation used in this text.

• Readline Interaction: The minimum set of commands for editing a line.

• Readline Init File: Customizing Readline from a user’s view.

• Bindable Readline Commands: A description of most of the Readline commands available for binding

• Readline vi Mode: A short description of how to make Readline behave like the vi editor.

• Programmable Completion: How to specify the possible completions for a specific command.

• Programmable Completion Builtin commands to specify how to complete arguments for a particular
Builtins: command.

Next: Readline Interaction, Up: Command Line Editing [Contents][Index]

8.1 Introduction to Line Editing

The following paragraphs describe the notation used to represent keystrokes.

The text C-k is read as ‘Control-K’ and describes the character produced when the k key is pressed while the
Control key is depressed.

The text M-k is read as ‘Meta-K’ and describes the character produced when the Meta key (if you have one)
is depressed, and the k key is pressed. The Meta key is labeled ALT on many keyboards. On keyboards with
two keys labeled ALT (usually to either side of the space bar), the ALT on the left side is generally set to
work as a Meta key. The ALT key on the right may also be configured to work as a Meta key or may be
configured as some other modifier, such as a Compose key for typing accented characters.

If you do not have a Meta or ALT key, or another key working as a Meta key, the identical keystroke can be
generated by typing ESC first, and then typing k. Either process is known as metafying the k key.

The text M-C-k is read as ‘Meta-Control-k’ and describes the character produced by metafying C-k.

In addition, several keys have their own names. Specifically, DEL, ESC, LFD, SPC, RET, and TAB all stand
for themselves when seen in this text, or in an init file (see Readline Init File). If your keyboard lacks a LFD
key, typing C-j will produce the desired character. The RET key may be labeled Return or Enter on
some keyboards.

Next: Readline Init File, Previous: Introduction and Notation, Up: Command Line Editing [Contents]
[Index]

8.2 Readline Interaction

Often during an interactive session you type in a long line of text, only to notice that the first word on the line
is misspelled. The Readline library gives you a set of commands for manipulating the text as you type it in,
allowing you to just fix your typo, and not forcing you to retype the majority of the line. Using these editing
commands, you move the cursor to the place that needs correction, and delete or insert the text of the
corrections. Then, when you are satisfied with the line, you simply press RET. You do not have to be at the
end of the line to press RET; the entire line is accepted regardless of the location of the cursor within the line.

• Readline Bare Essentials: The least you need to know about

Readline.

• Readline Movement Moving about the input line.

Commands:

• Readline Killing Commands: How to delete text, and how to get it

back!

• Readline Arguments: Giving numeric arguments to commands.

• Searching: Searching through previous lines.

Next: Readline Movement Commands, Up: Readline Interaction [Contents][Index]

8.2.1 Readline Bare Essentials

In order to enter characters into the line, simply type them. The typed character appears where the cursor
was, and then the cursor moves one space to the right. If you mistype a character, you can use your erase
character to back up and delete the mistyped character.

Sometimes you may mistype a character, and not notice the error until you have typed several other
characters. In that case, you can type C-b to move the cursor to the left, and then correct your mistake.
Afterwards, you can move the cursor to the right with C-f.

When you add text in the middle of a line, you will notice that characters to the right of the cursor are
‘pushed over’ to make room for the text that you have inserted. Likewise, when you delete text behind the
cursor, characters to the right of the cursor are ‘pulled back’ to fill in the blank space created by the removal
of the text. A list of the bare essentials for editing the text of an input line follows.

C-b

Move back one character.

C-f

Move forward one character.

DEL or Backspace

Delete the character to the left of the cursor.

C-d

Delete the character underneath the cursor.

Printing characters

Insert the character into the line at the cursor.

C-_ or C-x C-u

Undo the last editing command. You can undo all the way back to an empty line.

(Depending on your configuration, the Backspace key be set to delete the character to the left of the cursor
and the DEL key set to delete the character underneath the cursor, like C-d, rather than the character to the
left of the cursor.)

Next: Readline Killing Commands, Previous: Readline Bare Essentials, Up: Readline Interaction [Contents]
[Index]

8.2.2 Readline Movement Commands

The above table describes the most basic keystrokes that you need in order to do editing of the input line. For
your convenience, many other commands have been added in addition to C-b, C-f, C-d, and DEL. Here are
some commands for moving more rapidly about the line.

C-a

Move to the start of the line.

C-e

Move to the end of the line.

M-f

Move forward a word, where a word is composed of letters and digits.

M-b

Move backward a word.

C-l
 Clear the screen, reprinting the current line at the top.

Notice how C-f moves forward a character, while M-f moves forward a word. It is a loose convention that
control keystrokes operate on characters while meta keystrokes operate on words.

Next: Readline Arguments, Previous: Readline Movement Commands, Up: Readline Interaction [Contents]
[Index]

8.2.3 Readline Killing Commands

Killing text means to delete the text from the line, but to save it away for later use, usually by yanking (re-
inserting) it back into the line. (‘Cut’ and ‘paste’ are more recent jargon for ‘kill’ and ‘yank’.)

If the description for a command says that it ‘kills’ text, then you can be sure that you can get the text back in
a different (or the same) place later.

When you use a kill command, the text is saved in a kill-ring. Any number of consecutive kills save all of the
killed text together, so that when you yank it back, you get it all. The kill ring is not line specific; the text that
you killed on a previously typed line is available to be yanked back later, when you are typing another line.

Here is the list of commands for killing text.

C-k

Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the line.

M-d

Kill from the cursor to the end of the current word, or, if between words, to the end of the next word.
Word boundaries are the same as those used by M-f.

M-DEL

Kill from the cursor the start of the current word, or, if between words, to the start of the previous
word. Word boundaries are the same as those used by M-b.

C-w

Kill from the cursor to the previous whitespace. This is different than M-DEL because the word
boundaries differ.

Here is how to yank the text back into the line. Yanking means to copy the most-recently-killed text from the
kill buffer.

C-y

Yank the most recently killed text back into the buffer at the cursor.

M-y
 Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. You can only do this if the prior command is C-y or M-y.

Next: Searching, Previous: Readline Killing Commands, Up: Readline Interaction [Contents][Index]

8.2.4 Readline Arguments

You can pass numeric arguments to Readline commands. Sometimes the argument acts as a repeat count,
other times it is the sign of the argument that is significant. If you pass a negative argument to a command
which normally acts in a forward direction, that command will act in a backward direction. For example, to
kill text back to the start of the line, you might type ‘M-- C-k’.

The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type meta digits before the command. If the
first ‘digit’ typed is a minus sign (‘-’), then the sign of the argument will be negative. Once you have typed
one meta digit to get the argument started, you can type the remainder of the digits, and then the command.
For example, to give the C-d command an argument of 10, you could type ‘M-1 0 C-d’, which will delete
the next ten characters on the input line.

Previous: Readline Arguments, Up: Readline Interaction [Contents][Index]

8.2.5 Searching for Commands in the History

Readline provides commands for searching through the command history (see Bash History Facilities) for
lines containing a specified string. There are two search modes: incremental and non-incremental.

Incremental searches begin before the user has finished typing the search string. As each character of the
search string is typed, Readline displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed so far. An
incremental search requires only as many characters as needed to find the desired history entry. To search
backward in the history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward through the history.
The characters present in the value of the isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an
incremental search. If that variable has not been assigned a value, the ESC and C-J characters will terminate
an incremental search. C-g will abort an incremental search and restore the original line. When the search is
terminated, the history entry containing the search string becomes the current line.

To find other matching entries in the history list, type C-r or C-s as appropriate. This will search backward
or forward in the history for the next entry matching the search string typed so far. Any other key sequence
bound to a Readline command will terminate the search and execute that command. For instance, a RET will
terminate the search and accept the line, thereby executing the command from the history list. A movement
command will terminate the search, make the last line found the current line, and begin editing.

Readline remembers the last incremental search string. If two C-rs are typed without any intervening
characters defining a new search string, any remembered search string is used.

Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting to search for matching history lines.
The search string may be typed by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.

Next: Bindable Readline Commands, Previous: Readline Interaction, Up: Command Line Editing
[Contents][Index]
8.3 Readline Init File
Although the Readline library comes with a set of Emacs-like keybindings installed by default, it is possible
to use a different set of keybindings. Any user can customize programs that use Readline by putting
commands in an inputrc file, conventionally in his home directory. The name of this file is taken from the
value of the shell variable INPUTRC. If that variable is unset, the default is ~/.inputrc. If that file does
not exist or cannot be read, the ultimate default is /etc/inputrc.

When a program which uses the Readline library starts up, the init file is read, and the key bindings are set.

In addition, the C-x C-r command re-reads this init file, thus incorporating any changes that you might
have made to it.

• Readline Init File Syntax: Syntax for the commands in the inputrc
file.

• Conditional Init Conditional key bindings in the inputrc

Constructs: file.

• Sample Init File: An example inputrc file.

Next: Conditional Init Constructs, Up: Readline Init File [Contents][Index]

8.3.1 Readline Init File Syntax

There are only a few basic constructs allowed in the Readline init file. Blank lines are ignored. Lines
beginning with a ‘#’ are comments. Lines beginning with a ‘$’ indicate conditional constructs (see
Conditional Init Constructs). Other lines denote variable settings and key bindings.

Variable Settings

You can modify the run-time behavior of Readline by altering the values of variables in Readline using
the set command within the init file. The syntax is simple:

set variable value

Here, for example, is how to change from the default Emacs-like key binding to use vi line editing
commands:

set editing-mode vi

Variable names and values, where appropriate, are recognized without regard to case. Unrecognized
variable names are ignored.

Boolean variables (those that can be set to on or off) are set to on if the value is null or empty, on (case-
insensitive), or 1. Any other value results in the variable being set to off.

The bind -V command lists the current Readline variable names and values. See Bash Builtins.
A great deal of run-time behavior is changeable with the following variables.

bell-style

Controls what happens when Readline wants to ring the terminal bell. If set to ‘none’, Readline
never rings the bell. If set to ‘visible’, Readline uses a visible bell if one is available. If set to
‘audible’ (the default), Readline attempts to ring the terminal’s bell.

bind-tty-special-chars

If set to ‘on’, Readline attempts to bind the control characters treated specially by the kernel’s
terminal driver to their Readline equivalents.

comment-begin

The string to insert at the beginning of the line when the insert-comment command is
executed. The default value is "#".

completion-display-width

The number of screen columns used to display possible matches when performing completion.
The value is ignored if it is less than 0 or greater than the terminal screen width. A value of 0 will
cause matches to be displayed one per line. The default value is -1.

completion-ignore-case

If set to ‘on’, Readline performs filename matching and completion in a case-insensitive fashion.
The default value is ‘off’.

completion-map-case

If set to ‘on’, and completion-ignore-case is enabled, Readline treats hyphens (‘-’) and
underscores (‘_’) as equivalent when performing case-insensitive filename matching and
completion.

completion-prefix-display-length

The length in characters of the common prefix of a list of possible completions that is displayed
without modification. When set to a value greater than zero, common prefixes longer than this
value are replaced with an ellipsis when displaying possible completions.

completion-query-items

The number of possible completions that determines when the user is asked whether the list of
possibilities should be displayed. If the number of possible completions is greater than this value,
Readline will ask the user whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise, they are simply
listed. This variable must be set to an integer value greater than or equal to 0. A negative value
means Readline should never ask. The default limit is 100.

convert-meta
 If set to ‘on’, Readline will convert characters with the eighth bit set to an ASCII key sequence by
stripping the eighth bit and prefixing an ESC character, converting them to a meta-prefixed key
sequence. The default value is ‘on’.

disable-completion

If set to ‘On’, Readline will inhibit word completion. Completion characters will be inserted into
the line as if they had been mapped to self-insert. The default is ‘off’.

editing-mode

The editing-mode variable controls which default set of key bindings is used. By default,
Readline starts up in Emacs editing mode, where the keystrokes are most similar to Emacs. This
variable can be set to either ‘emacs’ or ‘vi’.

echo-control-characters

When set to ‘on’, on operating systems that indicate they support it, readline echoes a character
corresponding to a signal generated from the keyboard. The default is ‘on’.

enable-keypad

When set to ‘on’, Readline will try to enable the application keypad when it is called. Some
systems need this to enable the arrow keys. The default is ‘off’.

enable-meta-key

When set to ‘on’, Readline will try to enable any meta modifier key the terminal claims to
support when it is called. On many terminals, the meta key is used to send eight-bit characters.
The default is ‘on’.

expand-tilde

If set to ‘on’, tilde expansion is performed when Readline attempts word completion. The default
is ‘off’.

history-preserve-point

If set to ‘on’, the history code attempts to place the point (the current cursor position) at the same
location on each history line retrieved with previous-history or next-history. The
default is ‘off’.

history-size

Set the maximum number of history entries saved in the history list. If set to zero, the number of
entries in the history list is not limited.

horizontal-scroll-mode

This variable can be set to either ‘on’ or ‘off’. Setting it to ‘on’ means that the text of the lines
 being edited will scroll horizontally on a single screen line when they are longer than the width of
the screen, instead of wrapping onto a new screen line. By default, this variable is set to ‘off’.

input-meta

If set to ‘on’, Readline will enable eight-bit input (it will not clear the eighth bit in the characters
it reads), regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The default value is ‘off’. The
name meta-flag is a synonym for this variable.

isearch-terminators

The string of characters that should terminate an incremental search without subsequently
executing the character as a command (see Searching). If this variable has not been given a value,
the characters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search.

keymap

Sets Readline’s idea of the current keymap for key binding commands. Acceptable keymap
names are emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-
command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is equivalent to
emacs-standard. The default value is emacs. The value of the editing-mode variable
also affects the default keymap.

mark-directories

If set to ‘on’, completed directory names have a slash appended. The default is ‘on’.

mark-modified-lines

This variable, when set to ‘on’, causes Readline to display an asterisk (‘*’) at the start of history
lines which have been modified. This variable is ‘off’ by default.

mark-symlinked-directories

If set to ‘on’, completed names which are symbolic links to directories have a slash appended
(subject to the value of mark-directories). The default is ‘off’.

match-hidden-files

This variable, when set to ‘on’, causes Readline to match files whose names begin with a ‘.’
(hidden files) when performing filename completion. If set to ‘off’, the leading ‘.’ must be
supplied by the user in the filename to be completed. This variable is ‘on’ by default.

menu-complete-display-prefix

If set to ‘on’, menu completion displays the common prefix of the list of possible completions
(which may be empty) before cycling through the list. The default is ‘off’.

output-meta
 If set to ‘on’, Readline will display characters with the eighth bit set directly rather than as a
meta-prefixed escape sequence. The default is ‘off’.

page-completions

If set to ‘on’, Readline uses an internal more-like pager to display a screenful of possible
completions at a time. This variable is ‘on’ by default.

print-completions-horizontally

If set to ‘on’, Readline will display completions with matches sorted horizontally in alphabetical
order, rather than down the screen. The default is ‘off’.

revert-all-at-newline

If set to ‘on’, Readline will undo all changes to history lines before returning when accept-
line is executed. By default, history lines may be modified and retain individual undo lists
across calls to readline. The default is ‘off’.

show-all-if-ambiguous

This alters the default behavior of the completion functions. If set to ‘on’, words which have
more than one possible completion cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing
the bell. The default value is ‘off’.

show-all-if-unmodified

This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in a fashion similar to show-all-if-
ambiguous. If set to ‘on’, words which have more than one possible completion without any
possible partial completion (the possible completions don’t share a common prefix) cause the
matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell. The default value is ‘off’.

skip-completed-text

If set to ‘on’, this alters the default completion behavior when inserting a single match into the
line. It’s only active when performing completion in the middle of a word. If enabled, readline
does not insert characters from the completion that match characters after point in the word being
completed, so portions of the word following the cursor are not duplicated. For instance, if this is
enabled, attempting completion when the cursor is after the ‘e’ in ‘Makefile’ will result in
‘Makefile’ rather than ‘Makefilefile’, assuming there is a single possible completion. The
default value is ‘off’.

visible-stats

If set to ‘on’, a character denoting a file’s type is appended to the filename when listing possible
completions. The default is ‘off’.

Key Bindings

The syntax for controlling key bindings in the init file is simple. First you need to find the name of the
command that you want to change. The following sections contain tables of the command name, the
default keybinding, if any, and a short description of what the command does.

Once you know the name of the command, simply place on a line in the init file the name of the key
you wish to bind the command to, a colon, and then the name of the command. There can be no space
between the key name and the colon – that will be interpreted as part of the key name. The name of the
key can be expressed in different ways, depending on what you find most comfortable.

In addition to command names, readline allows keys to be bound to a string that is inserted when the
key is pressed (a macro).

The bind -p command displays Readline function names and bindings in a format that can put
directly into an initialization file. See Bash Builtins.

keyname: function-name or macro

keyname is the name of a key spelled out in English. For example:

Control-u: universal-argument
Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word
Control-o: "> output"

In the above example, C-u is bound to the function universal-argument, M-DEL is bound
to the function backward-kill-word, and C-o is bound to run the macro expressed on the
right hand side (that is, to insert the text ‘> output’ into the line).

A number of symbolic character names are recognized while processing this key binding syntax:
DEL, ESC, ESCAPE, LFD, NEWLINE, RET, RETURN, RUBOUT, SPACE, SPC, and TAB.

"keyseq": function-name or macro

keyseq differs from keyname above in that strings denoting an entire key sequence can be
specified, by placing the key sequence in double quotes. Some GNU Emacs style key escapes can
be used, as in the following example, but the special character names are not recognized.

"\C-u": universal-argument
"\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
"\e[11~": "Function Key 1"

In the above example, C-u is again bound to the function universal-argument (just as it
was in the first example), ‘C-x C-r’ is bound to the function re-read-init-file, and
‘ESC [ 1 1 ~’ is bound to insert the text ‘Function Key 1’.

The following GNU Emacs style escape sequences are available when specifying key sequences:

\C-

control prefix

\M-

meta prefix
\e

an escape character

\\

backslash

\"

", a double quotation mark

\'

', a single quote or apostrophe

In addition to the GNU Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of backslash escapes is available:

\a

alert (bell)

\b

backspace

\d

delete

\f

form feed

\n

newline

\r

carriage return

\t

horizontal tab

\v

vertical tab

\nnn
 the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (one to three digits)

\xHH

the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits)

When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes must be used to indicate a macro definition.
Unquoted text is assumed to be a function name. In the macro body, the backslash escapes described
above are expanded. Backslash will quote any other character in the macro text, including ‘"’ and ‘'’.
For example, the following binding will make ‘C-x \’ insert a single ‘\’ into the line:

"\C-x\\": "\\"

Next: Sample Init File, Previous: Readline Init File Syntax, Up: Readline Init File [Contents][Index]

8.3.2 Conditional Init Constructs

Readline implements a facility similar in spirit to the conditional compilation features of the C preprocessor
which allows key bindings and variable settings to be performed as the result of tests. There are four parser
directives used.

$if

The $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the editing mode, the terminal being used, or
the application using Readline. The text of the test extends to the end of the line; no characters are
required to isolate it.

mode

The mode= form of the $if directive is used to test whether Readline is in emacs or vi mode.
This may be used in conjunction with the ‘set keymap’ command, for instance, to set bindings
in the emacs-standard and emacs-ctlx keymaps only if Readline is starting out in
emacs mode.

term

The term= form may be used to include terminal-specific key bindings, perhaps to bind the key
sequences output by the terminal’s function keys. The word on the right side of the ‘=’ is tested
against both the full name of the terminal and the portion of the terminal name before the first
‘-’. This allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd, for instance.

application

The application construct is used to include application-specific settings. Each program using the
Readline library sets the application name, and you can test for a particular value. This could be
used to bind key sequences to functions useful for a specific program. For instance, the following
command adds a key sequence that quotes the current or previous word in Bash:

$if Bash
# Quote the current or previous word
"\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
 $endif

$endif

This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if command.

$else

Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the test fails.

$include

This directive takes a single filename as an argument and reads commands and bindings from that file.
For example, the following directive reads from /etc/inputrc:

$include /etc/inputrc

Previous: Conditional Init Constructs, Up: Readline Init File [Contents][Index]

8.3.3 Sample Init File

Here is an example of an inputrc file. This illustrates key binding, variable assignment, and conditional
syntax.

# This file controls the behaviour of line input editing for

# programs that use the GNU Readline library. Existing
# programs include FTP, Bash, and GDB.
#
# You can re-read the inputrc file with C-x C-r.
# Lines beginning with '#' are comments.
#
# First, include any systemwide bindings and variable
# assignments from /etc/Inputrc
$include /etc/Inputrc

#
# Set various bindings for emacs mode.

set editing-mode emacs

$if mode=emacs

Meta-Control-h: backward-kill-word Text after the function name is ignored

#
# Arrow keys in keypad mode
#
#"\M-OD": backward-char
#"\M-OC": forward-char
#"\M-OA": previous-history
#"\M-OB": next-history
#
# Arrow keys in ANSI mode
#
"\M-[D": backward-char
"\M-[C": forward-char
"\M-[A": previous-history
"\M-[B": next-history
#
# Arrow keys in 8 bit keypad mode
#
#"\M-\C-OD": backward-char
#"\M-\C-OC": forward-char
#"\M-\C-OA": previous-history
#"\M-\C-OB": next-history
#
# Arrow keys in 8 bit ANSI mode
#
#"\M-\C-[D": backward-char
#"\M-\C-[C": forward-char
#"\M-\C-[A": previous-history
#"\M-\C-[B": next-history

C-q: quoted-insert

$endif

# An old-style binding. This happens to be the default.

TAB: complete

# Macros that are convenient for shell interaction

$if Bash
# edit the path
"\C-xp": "PATH=${PATH}\e\C-e\C-a\ef\C-f"
# prepare to type a quoted word --
# insert open and close double quotes
# and move to just after the open quote
"\C-x\"": "\"\"\C-b"
# insert a backslash (testing backslash escapes
# in sequences and macros)
"\C-x\\": "\\"
# Quote the current or previous word
"\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\""
# Add a binding to refresh the line, which is unbound
"\C-xr": redraw-current-line
# Edit variable on current line.
"\M-\C-v": "\C-a\C-k$\C-y\M-\C-e\C-a\C-y="
$endif

# use a visible bell if one is available

set bell-style visible

# don't strip characters to 7 bits when reading

set input-meta on

# allow iso-latin1 characters to be inserted rather

# than converted to prefix-meta sequences
set convert-meta off

# display characters with the eighth bit set directly

# rather than as meta-prefixed characters
set output-meta on

# if there are more than 150 possible completions for

# a word, ask the user if he wants to see all of them
set completion-query-items 150

# For FTP
$if Ftp
"\C-xg": "get \M-?"
"\C-xt": "put \M-?"
"\M-.": yank-last-arg
$endif

Next: Readline vi Mode, Previous: Readline Init File, Up: Command Line Editing [Contents][Index]

8.4 Bindable Readline Commands

• Commands For Moving: Moving about the line.

• Commands For History: Getting at previous lines.

• Commands For Text: Commands for changing text.

• Commands For Killing: Commands for killing and yanking.

• Numeric Arguments: Specifying numeric arguments, repeat

counts.

• Commands For Getting Readline to do the typing for you.

Completion:

• Keyboard Macros: Saving and re-executing typed characters

• Miscellaneous Commands: Other miscellaneous commands.

This section describes Readline commands that may be bound to key sequences. You can list your key
bindings by executing bind -P or, for a more terse format, suitable for an inputrc file, bind -p. (See
Bash Builtins.) Command names without an accompanying key sequence are unbound by default.

In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor position, and mark refers to a cursor position
saved by the set-mark command. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the region.

Next: Commands For History, Up: Bindable Readline Commands [Contents][Index]

8.4.1 Commands For Moving

beginning-of-line (C-a)

Move to the start of the current line.

end-of-line (C-e)

Move to the end of the line.

forward-char (C-f)

Move forward a character.

backward-char (C-b)

Move back a character.

forward-word (M-f)

Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are composed of letters and digits.

backward-word (M-b)

Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words are composed of letters and digits.

shell-forward-word ()

Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are delimited by non-quoted shell metacharacters.

shell-backward-word ()

Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words are delimited by non-quoted shell
metacharacters.

clear-screen (C-l)

Clear the screen and redraw the current line, leaving the current line at the top of the screen.

redraw-current-line ()

Refresh the current line. By default, this is unbound.

Next: Commands For Text, Previous: Commands For Moving, Up: Bindable Readline Commands
[Contents][Index]

8.4.2 Commands For Manipulating The History

accept-line (Newline or Return)

Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line is non-empty, add it to the history list
according to the setting of the HISTCONTROL and HISTIGNORE variables. If this line is a modified
history line, then restore the history line to its original state.

previous-history (C-p)

Move ‘back’ through the history list, fetching the previous command.

next-history (C-n)

Move ‘forward’ through the history list, fetching the next command.

beginning-of-history (M-<)
 Move to the first line in the history.

end-of-history (M->)

Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently being entered.

reverse-search-history (C-r)

Search backward starting at the current line and moving ‘up’ through the history as necessary. This is
an incremental search.

forward-search-history (C-s)

Search forward starting at the current line and moving ‘down’ through the the history as necessary. This
is an incremental search.

non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p)

Search backward starting at the current line and moving ‘up’ through the history as necessary using a
non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user.

non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n)

Search forward starting at the current line and moving ‘down’ through the the history as necessary
using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user.

history-search-forward ()

Search forward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and
the point. This is a non-incremental search. By default, this command is unbound.

history-search-backward ()

Search backward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line
and the point. This is a non-incremental search. By default, this command is unbound.

yank-nth-arg (M-C-y)

Insert the first argument to the previous command (usually the second word on the previous line) at
point. With an argument n, insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the previous
command begin with word 0). A negative argument inserts the nth word from the end of the previous
command. Once the argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the ‘!n’ history expansion
had been specified.

yank-last-arg (M-. or M-_)

Insert last argument to the previous command (the last word of the previous history entry). With a
numeric argument, behave exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg move
back through the history list, inserting the last word (or the word specified by the argument to the first
call) of each line in turn. Any numeric argument supplied to these successive calls determines the
direction to move through the history. A negative argument switches the direction through the history
 (back or forward). The history expansion facilities are used to extract the last argument, as if the ‘!$’
history expansion had been specified.

Next: Commands For Killing, Previous: Commands For History, Up: Bindable Readline Commands
[Contents][Index]

8.4.3 Commands For Changing Text

delete-char (C-d)

Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of the line, there are no characters in the line,
and the last character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return EOF.

backward-delete-char (Rubout)

Delete the character behind the cursor. A numeric argument means to kill the characters instead of
deleting them.

forward-backward-delete-char ()

Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at the end of the line, in which case the
character behind the cursor is deleted. By default, this is not bound to a key.

quoted-insert (C-q or C-v)

Add the next character typed to the line verbatim. This is how to insert key sequences like C-q, for
example.

self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, …)

Insert yourself.

transpose-chars (C-t)

Drag the character before the cursor forward over the character at the cursor, moving the cursor
forward as well. If the insertion point is at the end of the line, then this transposes the last two
characters of the line. Negative arguments have no effect.

transpose-words (M-t)

Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving point past that word as well. If the
insertion point is at the end of the line, this transposes the last two words on the line.

upcase-word (M-u)

Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, uppercase the previous word, but
do not move the cursor.

downcase-word (M-l)
 Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, lowercase the previous word,
but do not move the cursor.

capitalize-word (M-c)

Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, capitalize the previous word, but
do not move the cursor.

overwrite-mode ()

Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argument, switches to overwrite mode. With
an explicit non-positive numeric argument, switches to insert mode. This command affects only emacs
mode; vi mode does overwrite differently. Each call to readline() starts in insert mode.

In overwrite mode, characters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than pushing
the text to the right. Characters bound to backward-delete-char replace the character before
point with a space.

By default, this command is unbound.

Next: Numeric Arguments, Previous: Commands For Text, Up: Bindable Readline Commands [Contents]
[Index]

8.4.4 Killing And Yanking

kill-line (C-k)

Kill the text from point to the end of the line.

backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout)

Kill backward to the beginning of the line.

unix-line-discard (C-u)

Kill backward from the cursor to the beginning of the current line.

kill-whole-line ()

Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point is. By default, this is unbound.

kill-word (M-d)

Kill from point to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Word
boundaries are the same as forward-word.

backward-kill-word (M-DEL)

Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as backward-word.
shell-kill-word ()

Kill from point to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Word
boundaries are the same as shell-forward-word.

shell-backward-kill-word ()

Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as shell-backward-word.

unix-word-rubout (C-w)

Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary. The killed text is saved on the kill-
ring.

unix-filename-rubout ()

Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash character as the word boundaries. The
killed text is saved on the kill-ring.

delete-horizontal-space ()

Delete all spaces and tabs around point. By default, this is unbound.

kill-region ()

Kill the text in the current region. By default, this command is unbound.

copy-region-as-kill ()

Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer, so it can be yanked right away. By default, this command
is unbound.

copy-backward-word ()

Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as backward-word.
By default, this command is unbound.

copy-forward-word ()

Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. The word boundaries are the same as forward-
word. By default, this command is unbound.

yank (C-y)

Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point.

yank-pop (M-y)

Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. You can only do this if the prior command is yank or
yank-pop.
Next: Commands For Completion, Previous: Commands For Killing, Up: Bindable Readline Commands
[Contents][Index]

8.4.5 Specifying Numeric Arguments

digit-argument (M-0, M-1, … M--)

Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a new argument. M-- starts a negative
argument.

universal-argument ()

This is another way to specify an argument. If this command is followed by one or more digits,
optionally with a leading minus sign, those digits define the argument. If the command is followed by
digits, executing universal-argument again ends the numeric argument, but is otherwise ignored.
As a special case, if this command is immediately followed by a character that is neither a digit or
minus sign, the argument count for the next command is multiplied by four. The argument count is
initially one, so executing this function the first time makes the argument count four, a second time
makes the argument count sixteen, and so on. By default, this is not bound to a key.

Next: Keyboard Macros, Previous: Numeric Arguments, Up: Bindable Readline Commands [Contents]
[Index]

8.4.6 Letting Readline Type For You

complete (TAB)

Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. The actual completion performed is
application-specific. Bash attempts completion treating the text as a variable (if the text begins with
‘$’), username (if the text begins with ‘~’), hostname (if the text begins with ‘@’), or command
(including aliases and functions) in turn. If none of these produces a match, filename completion is
attempted.

possible-completions (M-?)

List the possible completions of the text before point. When displaying completions, Readline sets the
number of columns used for display to the value of completion-display-width, the value of
the environment variable COLUMNS, or the screen width, in that order.

insert-completions (M-*)

Insert all completions of the text before point that would have been generated by possible-
completions.

menu-complete ()

Similar to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with a single match from the list of
possible completions. Repeated execution of menu-complete steps through the list of possible
 completions, inserting each match in turn. At the end of the list of completions, the bell is rung (subject
to the setting of bell-style) and the original text is restored. An argument of n moves n positions
forward in the list of matches; a negative argument may be used to move backward through the list.
This command is intended to be bound to TAB, but is unbound by default.

menu-complete-backward ()

Identical to menu-complete, but moves backward through the list of possible completions, as if
menu-complete had been given a negative argument.

delete-char-or-list ()

Deletes the character under the cursor if not at the beginning or end of the line (like delete-char).
If at the end of the line, behaves identically to possible-completions. This command is
unbound by default.

complete-filename (M-/)

Attempt filename completion on the text before point.

possible-filename-completions (C-x /)

List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a filename.

complete-username (M-~)

Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a username.

possible-username-completions (C-x ~)

List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a username.

complete-variable (M-$)

Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a shell variable.

possible-variable-completions (C-x $)

List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a shell variable.

complete-hostname (M-@)

Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a hostname.

possible-hostname-completions (C-x @)

List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a hostname.

complete-command (M-!)

Attempt completion on the text before point, treating it as a command name. Command completion
 attempts to match the text against aliases, reserved words, shell functions, shell builtins, and finally
executable filenames, in that order.

possible-command-completions (C-x !)

List the possible completions of the text before point, treating it as a command name.

dynamic-complete-history (M-TAB)

Attempt completion on the text before point, comparing the text against lines from the history list for
possible completion matches.

dabbrev-expand ()

Attempt menu completion on the text before point, comparing the text against lines from the history list
for possible completion matches.

complete-into-braces (M-{)

Perform filename completion and insert the list of possible completions enclosed within braces so the
list is available to the shell (see Brace Expansion).

Next: Miscellaneous Commands, Previous: Commands For Completion, Up: Bindable Readline Commands
[Contents][Index]

8.4.7 Keyboard Macros

start-kbd-macro (C-x ()

Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro.

end-kbd-macro (C-x ))

Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro and save the definition.

call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e)

Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the characters in the macro appear as if typed
at the keyboard.

Previous: Keyboard Macros, Up: Bindable Readline Commands [Contents][Index]

8.4.8 Some Miscellaneous Commands

re-read-init-file (C-x C-r)

Read in the contents of the inputrc file, and incorporate any bindings or variable assignments found
there.
abort (C-g)

Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal’s bell (subject to the setting of bell-
style).

do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, …)

If the metafied character x is lowercase, run the command that is bound to the corresponding uppercase
character.

prefix-meta (ESC)

Metafy the next character typed. This is for keyboards without a meta key. Typing ‘ESC f’ is
equivalent to typing M-f.

undo (C-_ or C-x C-u)

Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line.

revert-line (M-r)

Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the undo command enough times to get back
to the beginning.

tilde-expand (M-&)

Perform tilde expansion on the current word.

set-mark (C-@)

Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied, the mark is set to that position.

exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x)

Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is set to the saved position, and the old
cursor position is saved as the mark.

character-search (C-])

A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of that character. A negative count
searches for previous occurrences.

character-search-backward (M-C-])

A character is read and point is moved to the previous occurrence of that character. A negative count
searches for subsequent occurrences.

skip-csi-sequence ()

Read enough characters to consume a multi-key sequence such as those defined for keys like Home and
End. Such sequences begin with a Control Sequence Indicator (CSI), usually ESC-[. If this sequence is
 bound to "\e[", keys producing such sequences will have no effect unless explicitly bound to a readline
command, instead of inserting stray characters into the editing buffer. This is unbound by default, but
usually bound to ESC-[.

insert-comment (M-#)

Without a numeric argument, the value of the comment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning
of the current line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a toggle: if the characters at
the beginning of the line do not match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, otherwise
the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the beginning of the line. In either case, the line
is accepted as if a newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin causes this
command to make the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument causes the comment
character to be removed, the line will be executed by the shell.

dump-functions ()

Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument is
supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. This
command is unbound by default.

dump-variables ()

Print all of the settable variables and their values to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument
is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file. This
command is unbound by default.

dump-macros ()

Print all of the Readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output. If a numeric
argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc file.
This command is unbound by default.

glob-complete-word (M-g)

The word before point is treated as a pattern for pathname expansion, with an asterisk implicitly
appended. This pattern is used to generate a list of matching file names for possible completions.

glob-expand-word (C-x *)

The word before point is treated as a pattern for pathname expansion, and the list of matching file
names is inserted, replacing the word. If a numeric argument is supplied, a ‘*’ is appended before
pathname expansion.

glob-list-expansions (C-x g)

The list of expansions that would have been generated by glob-expand-word is displayed, and the
line is redrawn. If a numeric argument is supplied, a ‘*’ is appended before pathname expansion.

display-shell-version (C-x C-v)

Display version information about the current instance of Bash.

shell-expand-line (M-C-e)

Expand the line as the shell does. This performs alias and history expansion as well as all of the shell
word expansions (see Shell Expansions).

history-expand-line (M-^)

Perform history expansion on the current line.

magic-space ()

Perform history expansion on the current line and insert a space (see History Interaction).

alias-expand-line ()

Perform alias expansion on the current line (see Aliases).

history-and-alias-expand-line ()

Perform history and alias expansion on the current line.

insert-last-argument (M-. or M-_)

A synonym for yank-last-arg.

operate-and-get-next (C-o)

Accept the current line for execution and fetch the next line relative to the current line from the history
for editing. Any argument is ignored.

edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e)

Invoke an editor on the current command line, and execute the result as shell commands. Bash attempts
to invoke $VISUAL, $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.

Next: Programmable Completion, Previous: Bindable Readline Commands, Up: Command Line Editing
[Contents][Index]

8.5 Readline vi Mode

While the Readline library does not have a full set of vi editing functions, it does contain enough to allow
simple editing of the line. The Readline vi mode behaves as specified in the POSIX standard.

In order to switch interactively between emacs and vi editing modes, use the ‘set -o emacs’ and ‘set
-o vi’ commands (see The Set Builtin). The Readline default is emacs mode.

When you enter a line in vi mode, you are already placed in ‘insertion’ mode, as if you had typed an ‘i’.
Pressing ESC switches you into ‘command’ mode, where you can edit the text of the line with the standard
vi movement keys, move to previous history lines with ‘k’ and subsequent lines with ‘j’, and so forth.
Next: Programmable Completion Builtins, Previous: Readline vi Mode, Up: Command Line Editing
[Contents][Index]

8.6 Programmable Completion

When word completion is attempted for an argument to a command for which a completion specification (a
compspec) has been defined using the complete builtin (see Programmable Completion Builtins), the
programmable completion facilities are invoked.

First, the command name is identified. If a compspec has been defined for that command, the compspec is
used to generate the list of possible completions for the word. If the command word is the empty string
(completion attempted at the beginning of an empty line), any compspec defined with the -E option to
complete is used. If the command word is a full pathname, a compspec for the full pathname is searched
for first. If no compspec is found for the full pathname, an attempt is made to find a compspec for the portion
following the final slash. If those searches do not result in a compspec, any compspec defined with the -D
option to complete is used as the default.

Once a compspec has been found, it is used to generate the list of matching words. If a compspec is not
found, the default Bash completion described above (see Commands For Completion) is performed.

First, the actions specified by the compspec are used. Only matches which are prefixed by the word being
completed are returned. When the -f or -d option is used for filename or directory name completion, the
shell variable FIGNORE is used to filter the matches. See Bash Variables, for a description of FIGNORE.

Any completions specified by a filename expansion pattern to the -G option are generated next. The words
generated by the pattern need not match the word being completed. The GLOBIGNORE shell variable is not
used to filter the matches, but the FIGNORE shell variable is used.

Next, the string specified as the argument to the -W option is considered. The string is first split using the
characters in the IFS special variable as delimiters. Shell quoting is honored. Each word is then expanded
using brace expansion, tilde expansion, parameter and variable expansion, command substitution, and
arithmetic expansion, as described above (see Shell Expansions). The results are split using the rules
described above (see Word Splitting). The results of the expansion are prefix-matched against the word being
completed, and the matching words become the possible completions.

After these matches have been generated, any shell function or command specified with the -F and -C
options is invoked. When the command or function is invoked, the COMP_LINE, COMP_POINT,
COMP_KEY, and COMP_TYPE variables are assigned values as described above (see Bash Variables). If a
shell function is being invoked, the COMP_WORDS and COMP_CWORD variables are also set. When the
function or command is invoked, the first argument is the name of the command whose arguments are being
completed, the second argument is the word being completed, and the third argument is the word preceding
the word being completed on the current command line. No filtering of the generated completions against the
word being completed is performed; the function or command has complete freedom in generating the
matches.

Any function specified with -F is invoked first. The function may use any of the shell facilities, including the
compgen and compopt builtins described below (see Programmable Completion Builtins), to generate the
matches. It must put the possible completions in the COMPREPLY array variable.
Next, any command specified with the -C option is invoked in an environment equivalent to command
substitution. It should print a list of completions, one per line, to the standard output. Backslash may be used
to escape a newline, if necessary.

After all of the possible completions are generated, any filter specified with the -X option is applied to the
list. The filter is a pattern as used for pathname expansion; a ‘&’ in the pattern is replaced with the text of the
word being completed. A literal ‘&’ may be escaped with a backslash; the backslash is removed before
attempting a match. Any completion that matches the pattern will be removed from the list. A leading ‘!’
negates the pattern; in this case any completion not matching the pattern will be removed.

Finally, any prefix and suffix specified with the -P and -S options are added to each member of the
completion list, and the result is returned to the Readline completion code as the list of possible completions.

If the previously-applied actions do not generate any matches, and the -o dirnames option was supplied
to complete when the compspec was defined, directory name completion is attempted.

If the -o plusdirs option was supplied to complete when the compspec was defined, directory name
completion is attempted and any matches are added to the results of the other actions.

By default, if a compspec is found, whatever it generates is returned to the completion code as the full set of
possible completions. The default Bash completions are not attempted, and the Readline default of filename
completion is disabled. If the -o bashdefault option was supplied to complete when the compspec
was defined, the default Bash completions are attempted if the compspec generates no matches. If the -o
default option was supplied to complete when the compspec was defined, Readline’s default
completion will be performed if the compspec (and, if attempted, the default Bash completions) generate no
matches.

When a compspec indicates that directory name completion is desired, the programmable completion
functions force Readline to append a slash to completed names which are symbolic links to directories,
subject to the value of the mark-directories Readline variable, regardless of the setting of the mark-
symlinked-directories Readline variable.

There is some support for dynamically modifying completions. This is most useful when used in combination
with a default completion specified with -D. It’s possible for shell functions executed as completion handlers
to indicate that completion should be retried by returning an exit status of 124. If a shell function returns 124,
and changes the compspec associated with the command on which completion is being attempted (supplied
as the first argument when the function is executed), programmable completion restarts from the beginning,
with an attempt to find a new compspec for that command. This allows a set of completions to be built
dynamically as completion is attempted, rather than being loaded all at once.

For instance, assuming that there is a library of compspecs, each kept in a file corresponding to the name of
the command, the following default completion function would load completions dynamically:

_completion_loader()
{
. "/etc/bash_completion.d/$1.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1 && return 124
}
complete -D -F _completion_loader

Previous: Programmable Completion, Up: Command Line Editing [Contents][Index]

8.7 Programmable Completion Builtins
Two builtin commands are available to manipulate the programmable completion facilities.

compgen

compgen [option] [word]

Generate possible completion matches for word according to the options, which may be any option
accepted by the complete builtin with the exception of -p and -r, and write the matches to the
standard output. When using the -F or -C options, the various shell variables set by the programmable
completion facilities, while available, will not have useful values.

The matches will be generated in the same way as if the programmable completion code had generated
them directly from a completion specification with the same flags. If word is specified, only those
completions matching word will be displayed.

The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, or no matches were generated.

complete

complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-o comp-option] [-DE] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W
wordlist]
[-F function] [-C command] [-X filterpat]
[-P prefix] [-S suffix] name [name …]
complete -pr [-DE] [name …]

Specify how arguments to each name should be completed. If the -p option is supplied, or if no
options are supplied, existing completion specifications are printed in a way that allows them to be
reused as input. The -r option removes a completion specification for each name, or, if no names are
supplied, all completion specifications. The -D option indicates that the remaining options and actions
should apply to the “default” command completion; that is, completion attempted on a command for
which no completion has previously been defined. The -E option indicates that the remaining options
and actions should apply to “empty” command completion; that is, completion attempted on a blank
line.

The process of applying these completion specifications when word completion is attempted is
described above (see Programmable Completion). The -D option takes precedence over -E.

Other options, if specified, have the following meanings. The arguments to the -G, -W, and -X options
(and, if necessary, the -P and -S options) should be quoted to protect them from expansion before the
complete builtin is invoked.

-o comp-option

The comp-option controls several aspects of the compspec’s behavior beyond the simple
generation of completions. comp-option may be one of:

bashdefault

Perform the rest of the default Bash completions if the compspec generates no matches.

default
 Use Readline’s default filename completion if the compspec generates no matches.

dirnames

Perform directory name completion if the compspec generates no matches.

filenames

Tell Readline that the compspec generates filenames, so it can perform any filename-
specific processing (like adding a slash to directory names quoting special characters, or
suppressing trailing spaces). This option is intended to be used with shell functions
specified with -F.

nospace

Tell Readline not to append a space (the default) to words completed at the end of the line.

plusdirs

After any matches defined by the compspec are generated, directory name completion is
attempted and any matches are added to the results of the other actions.

-A action

The action may be one of the following to generate a list of possible completions:

alias

Alias names. May also be specified as -a.

arrayvar

Array variable names.

binding

Readline key binding names (see Bindable Readline Commands).

builtin

Names of shell builtin commands. May also be specified as -b.

command

Command names. May also be specified as -c.

directory

Directory names. May also be specified as -d.

disabled
 Names of disabled shell builtins.

enabled

Names of enabled shell builtins.

export

Names of exported shell variables. May also be specified as -e.

file

File names. May also be specified as -f.

function

Names of shell functions.

group

Group names. May also be specified as -g.

helptopic

Help topics as accepted by the help builtin (see Bash Builtins).

hostname

Hostnames, as taken from the file specified by the HOSTFILE shell variable (see Bash
Variables).

job

Job names, if job control is active. May also be specified as -j.

keyword

Shell reserved words. May also be specified as -k.

running

Names of running jobs, if job control is active.

service

Service names. May also be specified as -s.

setopt

Valid arguments for the -o option to the set builtin (see The Set Builtin).
 shopt

Shell option names as accepted by the shopt builtin (see Bash Builtins).

signal

Signal names.

stopped

Names of stopped jobs, if job control is active.

user

User names. May also be specified as -u.

variable

Names of all shell variables. May also be specified as -v.

-C command

command is executed in a subshell environment, and its output is used as the possible
completions.

-F function

The shell function function is executed in the current shell environment. When it finishes, the
possible completions are retrieved from the value of the COMPREPLY array variable.

-G globpat

The filename expansion pattern globpat is expanded to generate the possible completions.

-P prefix

prefix is added at the beginning of each possible completion after all other options have been
applied.

-S suffix

suffix is appended to each possible completion after all other options have been applied.

-W wordlist

The wordlist is split using the characters in the IFS special variable as delimiters, and each
resultant word is expanded. The possible completions are the members of the resultant list which
match the word being completed.

-X filterpat
 filterpat is a pattern as used for filename expansion. It is applied to the list of possible
completions generated by the preceding options and arguments, and each completion matching
filterpat is removed from the list. A leading ‘!’ in filterpat negates the pattern; in this case, any
completion not matching filterpat is removed.

The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, an option other than -p or -r is supplied
without a name argument, an attempt is made to remove a completion specification for a name for
which no specification exists, or an error occurs adding a completion specification.

compopt

compopt [-o option] [-DE] [+o option] [name]

Modify completion options for each name according to the options, or for the currently-executing
completion if no names are supplied. If no options are given, display the completion options for each
name or the current completion. The possible values of option are those valid for the complete
builtin described above. The -D option indicates that the remaining options should apply to the
“default” command completion; that is, completion attempted on a command for which no completion
has previously been defined. The -E option indicates that the remaining options should apply to
“empty” command completion; that is, completion attempted on a blank line.

The -D option takes precedence over -E.

The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, an attempt is made to modify the options
for a name for which no completion specification exists, or an output error occurs.

Next: Installing Bash, Previous: Command Line Editing, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

9 Using History Interactively

This chapter describes how to use the GNU History Library interactively, from a user’s standpoint. It should
be considered a user’s guide. For information on using the GNU History Library in other programs, see the
GNU Readline Library Manual.

• Bash History How Bash lets you manipulate your command history.
Facilities:

• Bash History The Bash builtin commands that manipulate the command
Builtins: history.

• History Interaction: What it feels like using History as a user.

Next: Bash History Builtins, Up: Using History Interactively [Contents][Index]

9.1 Bash History Facilities

When the -o history option to the set builtin is enabled (see The Set Builtin), the shell provides access
to the command history, the list of commands previously typed. The value of the HISTSIZE shell variable is
used as the number of commands to save in a history list. The text of the last $HISTSIZE commands
(default 500) is saved. The shell stores each command in the history list prior to parameter and variable
expansion but after history expansion is performed, subject to the values of the shell variables HISTIGNORE
and HISTCONTROL.

When the shell starts up, the history is initialized from the file named by the HISTFILE variable (default
~/.bash_history). The file named by the value of HISTFILE is truncated, if necessary, to contain no
more than the number of lines specified by the value of the HISTFILESIZE variable. When an interactive
shell exits, the last $HISTSIZE lines are copied from the history list to the file named by $HISTFILE. If
the histappend shell option is set (see Bash Builtins), the lines are appended to the history file, otherwise
the history file is overwritten. If HISTFILE is unset, or if the history file is unwritable, the history is not
saved. After saving the history, the history file is truncated to contain no more than $HISTFILESIZE lines.
If HISTFILESIZE is not set, no truncation is performed.

If the HISTTIMEFORMAT is set, the time stamp information associated with each history entry is written to
the history file, marked with the history comment character. When the history file is read, lines beginning
with the history comment character followed immediately by a digit are interpreted as timestamps for the
previous history line.

The builtin command fc may be used to list or edit and re-execute a portion of the history list. The
history builtin may be used to display or modify the history list and manipulate the history file. When
using command-line editing, search commands are available in each editing mode that provide access to the
history list (see Commands For History).

The shell allows control over which commands are saved on the history list. The HISTCONTROL and
HISTIGNORE variables may be set to cause the shell to save only a subset of the commands entered. The
cmdhist shell option, if enabled, causes the shell to attempt to save each line of a multi-line command in
the same history entry, adding semicolons where necessary to preserve syntactic correctness. The lithist
shell option causes the shell to save the command with embedded newlines instead of semicolons. The
shopt builtin is used to set these options. See Bash Builtins, for a description of shopt.

Next: History Interaction, Previous: Bash History Facilities, Up: Using History Interactively [Contents]
[Index]

9.2 Bash History Builtins

Bash provides two builtin commands which manipulate the history list and history file.

fc

fc [-e ename] [-lnr] [first] [last]

fc -s [pat=rep] [command]

Fix Command. In the first form, a range of commands from first to last is selected from the history list.
Both first and last may be specified as a string (to locate the most recent command beginning with that
string) or as a number (an index into the history list, where a negative number is used as an offset from
the current command number). If last is not specified it is set to first. If first is not specified it is set to
the previous command for editing and -16 for listing. If the -l flag is given, the commands are listed
on standard output. The -n flag suppresses the command numbers when listing. The -r flag reverses
 the order of the listing. Otherwise, the editor given by ename is invoked on a file containing those
commands. If ename is not given, the value of the following variable expansion is used: ${FCEDIT:-
${EDITOR:-vi}}. This says to use the value of the FCEDIT variable if set, or the value of the
EDITOR variable if that is set, or vi if neither is set. When editing is complete, the edited commands
are echoed and executed.

In the second form, command is re-executed after each instance of pat in the selected command is
replaced by rep.

A useful alias to use with the fc command is r='fc -s', so that typing ‘r cc’ runs the last
command beginning with cc and typing ‘r’ re-executes the last command (see Aliases).

history

history [n]
history -c
history -d offset
history [-anrw] [filename]
history -ps arg

With no options, display the history list with line numbers. Lines prefixed with a ‘*’ have been
modified. An argument of n lists only the last n lines. If the shell variable HISTTIMEFORMAT is set
and not null, it is used as a format string for strftime to display the time stamp associated with each
displayed history entry. No intervening blank is printed between the formatted time stamp and the
history line.

Options, if supplied, have the following meanings:

-c

Clear the history list. This may be combined with the other options to replace the history list
completely.

-d offset

Delete the history entry at position offset. offset should be specified as it appears when the history
is displayed.

-a

Append the new history lines (history lines entered since the beginning of the current Bash
session) to the history file.

-n

Append the history lines not already read from the history file to the current history list. These
are lines appended to the history file since the beginning of the current Bash session.

-r

Read the current history file and append its contents to the history list.
 -w

Write out the current history to the history file.

-p

Perform history substitution on the args and display the result on the standard output, without
storing the results in the history list.

-s

The args are added to the end of the history list as a single entry.

When any of the -w, -r, -a, or -n options is used, if filename is given, then it is used as the history
file. If not, then the value of the HISTFILE variable is used.

Previous: Bash History Builtins, Up: Using History Interactively [Contents][Index]

9.3 History Expansion

The History library provides a history expansion feature that is similar to the history expansion provided by
csh. This section describes the syntax used to manipulate the history information.

History expansions introduce words from the history list into the input stream, making it easy to repeat
commands, insert the arguments to a previous command into the current input line, or fix errors in previous
commands quickly.

History expansion takes place in two parts. The first is to determine which line from the history list should be
used during substitution. The second is to select portions of that line for inclusion into the current one. The
line selected from the history is called the event, and the portions of that line that are acted upon are called
words. Various modifiers are available to manipulate the selected words. The line is broken into words in the
same fashion that Bash does, so that several words surrounded by quotes are considered one word. History
expansions are introduced by the appearance of the history expansion character, which is ‘!’ by default. Only
‘\’ and ‘'’ may be used to escape the history expansion character.

Several shell options settable with the shopt builtin (see Bash Builtins) may be used to tailor the behavior
of history expansion. If the histverify shell option is enabled, and Readline is being used, history
substitutions are not immediately passed to the shell parser. Instead, the expanded line is reloaded into the
Readline editing buffer for further modification. If Readline is being used, and the histreedit shell
option is enabled, a failed history expansion will be reloaded into the Readline editing buffer for correction.
The -p option to the history builtin command may be used to see what a history expansion will do before
using it. The -s option to the history builtin may be used to add commands to the end of the history list
without actually executing them, so that they are available for subsequent recall. This is most useful in
conjunction with Readline.

The shell allows control of the various characters used by the history expansion mechanism with the
histchars variable, as explained above (see Bash Variables). The shell uses the history comment character
to mark history timestamps when writing the history file.

• Event How to specify which history line to

Designators: use.

• Word Specifying which words are of

Designators: interest.

• Modifiers: Modifying the results of substitution.

Next: Word Designators, Up: History Interaction [Contents][Index]

9.3.1 Event Designators

An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the history list. Unless the reference is
absolute, events are relative to the current position in the history list.

Start a history substitution, except when followed by a space, tab, the end of the line, ‘=’ or ‘(’ (when
the extglob shell option is enabled using the shopt builtin).

!n

Refer to command line n.

!-n

Refer to the command n lines back.

!!

Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for ‘!-1’.

!string

Refer to the most recent command preceding the current position in the history list starting with string.

!?string[?]

Refer to the most recent command preceding the current position in the history list containing string.
The trailing ‘?’ may be omitted if the string is followed immediately by a newline.

^string1^string2^

Quick Substitution. Repeat the last command, replacing string1 with string2. Equivalent to
!!:s/string1/string2/.

!#

The entire command line typed so far.

Next: Modifiers, Previous: Event Designators, Up: History Interaction [Contents][Index]

9.3.2 Word Designators

Word designators are used to select desired words from the event. A ‘:’ separates the event specification
from the word designator. It may be omitted if the word designator begins with a ‘^’, ‘$’, ‘*’, ‘-’, or ‘%’.
Words are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the first word being denoted by 0 (zero). Words are
inserted into the current line separated by single spaces.

For example,

!!

designates the preceding command. When you type this, the preceding command is repeated in toto.

!!:$

designates the last argument of the preceding command. This may be shortened to !$.

!fi:2

designates the second argument of the most recent command starting with the letters fi.

Here are the word designators:

0 (zero)

The 0th word. For many applications, this is the command word.

The nth word.

The first argument; that is, word 1.

The last argument.

The word matched by the most recent ‘?string?’ search.

x-y

A range of words; ‘-y’ abbreviates ‘0-y’.

*
 All of the words, except the 0th. This is a synonym for ‘1-$’. It is not an error to use ‘*’ if there is just
one word in the event; the empty string is returned in that case.

x*

Abbreviates ‘x-$’

x-

Abbreviates ‘x-$’ like ‘x*’, but omits the last word.

If a word designator is supplied without an event specification, the previous command is used as the event.

Previous: Word Designators, Up: History Interaction [Contents][Index]

9.3.3 Modifiers
After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence of one or more of the following modifiers, each
preceded by a ‘:’.

Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving only the head.

Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the tail.

Remove a trailing suffix of the form ‘.suffix’, leaving the basename.

Remove all but the trailing suffix.

Print the new command but do not execute it.

Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions.

Quote the substituted words as with ‘q’, but break into words at spaces, tabs, and newlines.

s/old/new/
 Substitute new for the first occurrence of old in the event line. Any delimiter may be used in place of
‘/’. The delimiter may be quoted in old and new with a single backslash. If ‘&’ appears in new, it is
replaced by old. A single backslash will quote the ‘&’. The final delimiter is optional if it is the last
character on the input line.

&

Repeat the previous substitution.

g
a

Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line. Used in conjunction with ‘s’, as in
gs/old/new/, or with ‘&’.

Apply the following ‘s’ modifier once to each word in the event.

Next: Reporting Bugs, Previous: Using History Interactively, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

10 Installing Bash
This chapter provides basic instructions for installing Bash on the various supported platforms. The
distribution supports the GNU operating systems, nearly every version of Unix, and several non-Unix systems
such as BeOS and Interix. Other independent ports exist for MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows platforms.

• Basic Installation: Installation instructions.

• Compilers and Options: How to set special options for various systems.

• Compiling For Multiple How to compile Bash for more than one kind of system from the same
Architectures: source tree.

• Installation Names: How to set the various paths used by the installation.

• Specifying the System Type: How to configure Bash for a particular system.

• Sharing Defaults: How to share default configuration values among GNU programs.

• Operation Controls: Options recognized by the configuration program.

• Optional Features: How to enable and disable optional features when building Bash.

Next: Compilers and Options, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.1 Basic Installation
These are installation instructions for Bash.

The simplest way to compile Bash is:

1. cd to the directory containing the source code and type ‘./configure’ to configure Bash for your
system. If you’re using csh on an old version of System V, you might need to type ‘sh
./configure’ instead to prevent csh from trying to execute configure itself.

Running configure takes some time. While running, it prints messages telling which features it is
checking for.

2. Type ‘make’ to compile Bash and build the bashbug bug reporting script.
3. Optionally, type ‘make tests’ to run the Bash test suite.
4. Type ‘make install’ to install bash and bashbug. This will also install the manual pages and
Info file.

The configure shell script attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used
during compilation. It uses those values to create a Makefile in each directory of the package (the top
directory, the builtins, doc, and support directories, each directory under lib, and several others). It
also creates a config.h file containing system-dependent definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script
named config.status that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file
config.cache that saves the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring, and a file config.log
containing compiler output (useful mainly for debugging configure). If at some point config.cache
contains results you don’t want to keep, you may remove or edit it.

To find out more about the options and arguments that the configure script understands, type

bash-2.04$ ./configure --help

at the Bash prompt in your Bash source directory.

If you need to do unusual things to compile Bash, please try to figure out how configure could check
whether or not to do them, and mail diffs or instructions to [email protected] so they can be
considered for the next release.

The file configure.in is used to create configure by a program called Autoconf. You only need
configure.in if you want to change it or regenerate configure using a newer version of Autoconf. If
you do this, make sure you are using Autoconf version 2.50 or newer.

You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source code directory by typing ‘make
clean’. To also remove the files that configure created (so you can compile Bash for a different kind of
computer), type ‘make distclean’.

Next: Compiling For Multiple Architectures, Previous: Basic Installation, Up: Installing Bash [Contents]
[Index]
10.2 Compilers and Options
Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that the configure script does not know
about. You can give configure initial values for variables by setting them in the environment. Using a
Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like this:

CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure

On systems that have the env program, you can do it like this:

env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure

The configuration process uses GCC to build Bash if it is available.

Next: Installation Names, Previous: Compilers and Options, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.3 Compiling For Multiple Architectures

You can compile Bash for more than one kind of computer at the same time, by placing the object files for
each architecture in their own directory. To do this, you must use a version of make that supports the VPATH
variable, such as GNU make. cd to the directory where you want the object files and executables to go and
run the configure script from the source directory. You may need to supply the --srcdir=PATH
argument to tell configure where the source files are. configure automatically checks for the source
code in the directory that configure is in and in ‘..’.

If you have to use a make that does not supports the VPATH variable, you can compile Bash for one
architecture at a time in the source code directory. After you have installed Bash for one architecture, use
‘make distclean’ before reconfiguring for another architecture.

Alternatively, if your system supports symbolic links, you can use the support/mkclone script to create
a build tree which has symbolic links back to each file in the source directory. Here’s an example that creates
a build directory in the current directory from a source directory /usr/gnu/src/bash-2.0:

bash /usr/gnu/src/bash-2.0/support/mkclone -s /usr/gnu/src/bash-2.0 .

The mkclone script requires Bash, so you must have already built Bash for at least one architecture before
you can create build directories for other architectures.

Next: Specifying the System Type, Previous: Compiling For Multiple Architectures, Up: Installing Bash
[Contents][Index]

10.4 Installation Names

By default, ‘make install’ will install into /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/man, etc. You can
specify an installation prefix other than /usr/local by giving configure the option
--prefix=PATH, or by specifying a value for the DESTDIR ‘make’ variable when running ‘make
install’.

You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture-specific files and architecture-independent
files. If you give configure the option --exec-prefix=PATH, ‘make install’ will use PATH as
the prefix for installing programs and libraries. Documentation and other data files will still use the regular
prefix.

Next: Sharing Defaults, Previous: Installation Names, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.5 Specifying the System Type

There may be some features configure can not figure out automatically, but need to determine by the type
of host Bash will run on. Usually configure can figure that out, but if it prints a message saying it can not
guess the host type, give it the --host=TYPE option. ‘TYPE’ can either be a short name for the system
type, such as ‘sun4’, or a canonical name with three fields: ‘CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM’ (e.g., ‘i386-
unknown-freebsd4.2’).

See the file support/config.sub for the possible values of each field.

Next: Operation Controls, Previous: Specifying the System Type, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.6 Sharing Defaults

If you want to set default values for configure scripts to share, you can create a site shell script called
config.site that gives default values for variables like CC, cache_file, and prefix. configure
looks for PREFIX/share/config.site if it exists, then PREFIX/etc/config.site if it exists.
Or, you can set the CONFIG_SITE environment variable to the location of the site script. A warning: the
Bash configure looks for a site script, but not all configure scripts do.

Next: Optional Features, Previous: Sharing Defaults, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.7 Operation Controls

configure recognizes the following options to control how it operates.

--cache-file=file

Use and save the results of the tests in file instead of ./config.cache. Set file to /dev/null to
disable caching, for debugging configure.

--help

Print a summary of the options to configure, and exit.

--quiet
--silent
-q

Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.

--srcdir=dir

Look for the Bash source code in directory dir. Usually configure can determine that directory
automatically.

--version

Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the configure script, and exit.

configure also accepts some other, not widely used, boilerplate options. ‘configure --help’ prints
the complete list.

Previous: Operation Controls, Up: Installing Bash [Contents][Index]

10.8 Optional Features

The Bash configure has a number of --enable-feature options, where feature indicates an optional
part of Bash. There are also several --with-package options, where package is something like ‘bash-
malloc’ or ‘purify’. To turn off the default use of a package, use --without-package. To configure
Bash without a feature that is enabled by default, use --disable-feature.

Here is a complete list of the --enable- and --with- options that the Bash configure recognizes.

--with-afs

Define if you are using the Andrew File System from Transarc.

--with-bash-malloc

Use the Bash version of malloc in the directory lib/malloc. This is not the same malloc that
appears in GNU libc, but an older version originally derived from the 4.2 BSD malloc. This malloc
is very fast, but wastes some space on each allocation. This option is enabled by default. The NOTES
file contains a list of systems for which this should be turned off, and configure disables this option
automatically for a number of systems.

--with-curses

Use the curses library instead of the termcap library. This should be supplied if your system has an
inadequate or incomplete termcap database.

--with-gnu-malloc

A synonym for --with-bash-malloc.

--with-installed-readline[=PREFIX]

Define this to make Bash link with a locally-installed version of Readline rather than the version in
lib/readline. This works only with Readline 5.0 and later versions. If PREFIX is yes or not
supplied, configure uses the values of the make variables includedir and libdir, which are
 subdirectories of prefix by default, to find the installed version of Readline if it is not in the standard
system include and library directories. If PREFIX is no, Bash links with the version in
lib/readline. If PREFIX is set to any other value, configure treats it as a directory pathname
and looks for the installed version of Readline in subdirectories of that directory (include files in
PREFIX/include and the library in PREFIX/lib).

--with-purify

Define this to use the Purify memory allocation checker from Rational Software.

--enable-minimal-config

This produces a shell with minimal features, close to the historical Bourne shell.

There are several --enable- options that alter how Bash is compiled and linked, rather than changing run-
time features.

--enable-largefile

Enable support for large files if the operating system requires special compiler options to build
programs which can access large files. This is enabled by default, if the operating system provides large
file support.

--enable-profiling

This builds a Bash binary that produces profiling information to be processed by gprof each time it is
executed.

--enable-static-link

This causes Bash to be linked statically, if gcc is being used. This could be used to build a version to
use as root’s shell.

The ‘minimal-config’ option can be used to disable all of the following options, but it is processed first,
so individual options may be enabled using ‘enable-feature’.

All of the following options except for ‘disabled-builtins’ and ‘xpg-echo-default’ are enabled
by default, unless the operating system does not provide the necessary support.

--enable-alias

Allow alias expansion and include the alias and unalias builtins (see Aliases).

--enable-arith-for-command

Include support for the alternate form of the for command that behaves like the C language for
statement (see Looping Constructs).

--enable-array-variables

Include support for one-dimensional array shell variables (see Arrays).

--enable-bang-history

Include support for csh-like history substitution (see History Interaction).

--enable-brace-expansion

Include csh-like brace expansion ( b{a,b}c → bac bbc ). See Brace Expansion, for a complete
description.

--enable-casemod-attributes

Include support for case-modifying attributes in the declare builtin and assignment statements.
Variables with the uppercase attribute, for example, will have their values converted to uppercase upon
assignment.

--enable-casemod-expansion

Include support for case-modifying word expansions.

--enable-command-timing

Include support for recognizing time as a reserved word and for displaying timing statistics for the
pipeline following time (see Pipelines). This allows pipelines as well as shell builtins and functions to
be timed.

--enable-cond-command

Include support for the [[ conditional command. (see Conditional Constructs).

--enable-cond-regexp

Include support for matching POSIX regular expressions using the ‘=~’ binary operator in the
[[ conditional command. (see Conditional Constructs).

--enable-coprocesses

Include support for coprocesses and the coproc reserved word (see Pipelines).

--enable-debugger

Include support for the bash debugger (distributed separately).

--enable-directory-stack

Include support for a csh-like directory stack and the pushd, popd, and dirs builtins (see The
Directory Stack).

--enable-disabled-builtins

Allow builtin commands to be invoked via ‘builtin xxx’ even after xxx has been disabled using
‘enable -n xxx’. See Bash Builtins, for details of the builtin and enable builtin commands.
--enable-dparen-arithmetic

Include support for the ((…)) command (see Conditional Constructs).

--enable-extended-glob

Include support for the extended pattern matching features described above under Pattern Matching.

--enable-extended-glob-default

Set the default value of the extglob shell option described above under The Shopt Builtin to be enabled.

--enable-help-builtin

Include the help builtin, which displays help on shell builtins and variables (see Bash Builtins).

--enable-history

Include command history and the fc and history builtin commands (see Bash History Facilities).

--enable-job-control

This enables the job control features (see Job Control), if the operating system supports them.

--enable-multibyte

This enables support for multibyte characters if the operating system provides the necessary support.

--enable-net-redirections

This enables the special handling of filenames of the form /dev/tcp/host/port and
/dev/udp/host/port when used in redirections (see Redirections).

--enable-process-substitution

This enables process substitution (see Process Substitution) if the operating system provides the
necessary support.

--enable-progcomp

Enable the programmable completion facilities (see Programmable Completion). If Readline is not
enabled, this option has no effect.

--enable-prompt-string-decoding

Turn on the interpretation of a number of backslash-escaped characters in the $PS1, $PS2, $PS3, and
$PS4 prompt strings. See Printing a Prompt, for a complete list of prompt string escape sequences.

--enable-readline

Include support for command-line editing and history with the Bash version of the Readline library (see
 Command Line Editing).

--enable-restricted

Include support for a restricted shell. If this is enabled, Bash, when called as rbash, enters a restricted
mode. See The Restricted Shell, for a description of restricted mode.

--enable-select

Include the select compound command, which allows the generation of simple menus (see
Conditional Constructs).

--enable-separate-helpfiles

Use external files for the documentation displayed by the help builtin instead of storing the text
internally.

--enable-single-help-strings

Store the text displayed by the help builtin as a single string for each help topic. This aids in
translating the text to different languages. You may need to disable this if your compiler cannot handle
very long string literals.

--enable-strict-posix-default

Make Bash POSIX-conformant by default (see Bash POSIX Mode).

--enable-usg-echo-default

A synonym for --enable-xpg-echo-default.

--enable-xpg-echo-default

Make the echo builtin expand backslash-escaped characters by default, without requiring the -e
option. This sets the default value of the xpg_echo shell option to on, which makes the Bash echo
behave more like the version specified in the Single Unix Specification, version 3. See Bash Builtins,
for a description of the escape sequences that echo recognizes.

The file config-top.h contains C Preprocessor ‘#define’ statements for options which are not settable
from configure. Some of these are not meant to be changed; beware of the consequences if you do. Read
the comments associated with each definition for more information about its effect.

Next: Major Differences From The Bourne Shell, Previous: Installing Bash, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

Appendix A Reporting Bugs

Please report all bugs you find in Bash. But first, you should make sure that it really is a bug, and that it
appears in the latest version of Bash. The latest version of Bash is always available for FTP from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bash/.
Once you have determined that a bug actually exists, use the bashbug command to submit a bug report. If
you have a fix, you are encouraged to mail that as well! Suggestions and ‘philosophical’ bug reports may be
mailed to [email protected] or posted to the Usenet newsgroup gnu.bash.bug.

All bug reports should include:

• The version number of Bash.

• The hardware and operating system.
• The compiler used to compile Bash.
• A description of the bug behaviour.
• A short script or ‘recipe’ which exercises the bug and may be used to reproduce it.

bashbug inserts the first three items automatically into the template it provides for filing a bug report.

Please send all reports concerning this manual to [email protected].

Next: GNU Free Documentation License, Previous: Reporting Bugs, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

Appendix B Major Differences From The Bourne Shell

Bash implements essentially the same grammar, parameter and variable expansion, redirection, and quoting
as the Bourne Shell. Bash uses the POSIX standard as the specification of how these features are to be
implemented. There are some differences between the traditional Bourne shell and Bash; this section quickly
details the differences of significance. A number of these differences are explained in greater depth in
previous sections. This section uses the version of sh included in SVR4.2 (the last version of the historical
Bourne shell) as the baseline reference.

• Bash is POSIX-conformant, even where the POSIX specification differs from traditional sh behavior
(see Bash POSIX Mode).
• Bash has multi-character invocation options (see Invoking Bash).
• Bash has command-line editing (see Command Line Editing) and the bind builtin.
• Bash provides a programmable word completion mechanism (see Programmable Completion), and
builtin commands complete, compgen, and compopt, to manipulate it.
• Bash has command history (see Bash History Facilities) and the history and fc builtins to
manipulate it. The Bash history list maintains timestamp information and uses the value of the
HISTTIMEFORMAT variable to display it.
• Bash implements csh-like history expansion (see History Interaction).
• Bash has one-dimensional array variables (see Arrays), and the appropriate variable expansions and
assignment syntax to use them. Several of the Bash builtins take options to act on arrays. Bash
provides a number of built-in array variables.
• The $'…' quoting syntax, which expands ANSI-C backslash-escaped characters in the text between
the single quotes, is supported (see ANSI-C Quoting).
• Bash supports the $"…" quoting syntax to do locale-specific translation of the characters between the
double quotes. The -D, --dump-strings, and --dump-po-strings invocation options list
the translatable strings found in a script (see Locale Translation).
• Bash implements the ! keyword to negate the return value of a pipeline (see Pipelines). Very useful
when an if statement needs to act only if a test fails. The Bash ‘-o pipefail’ option to set will
cause a pipeline to return a failure status if any command fails.
• Bash has the time reserved word and command timing (see Pipelines). The display of the timing
statistics may be controlled with the TIMEFORMAT variable.
• Bash implements the for (( expr1 ; expr2 ; expr3 )) arithmetic for command, similar
to the C language (see Looping Constructs).
• Bash includes the select compound command, which allows the generation of simple menus (see
Conditional Constructs).
• Bash includes the [[ compound command, which makes conditional testing part of the shell grammar
(see Conditional Constructs), including optional regular expression matching.
• Bash provides optional case-insensitive matching for the case and [[ constructs.
• Bash includes brace expansion (see Brace Expansion) and tilde expansion (see Tilde Expansion).
• Bash implements command aliases and the alias and unalias builtins (see Aliases).
• Bash provides shell arithmetic, the (( compound command (see Conditional Constructs), and
arithmetic expansion (see Shell Arithmetic).
• Variables present in the shell’s initial environment are automatically exported to child processes. The
Bourne shell does not normally do this unless the variables are explicitly marked using the export
command.
• Bash supports the ‘+=’ assignment operator, which appends to the value of the variable named on the
left hand side.
• Bash includes the POSIX pattern removal ‘%’, ‘#’, ‘%%’ and ‘##’ expansions to remove leading or
trailing substrings from variable values (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
• The expansion ${#xx}, which returns the length of ${xx}, is supported (see Shell Parameter
Expansion).
• The expansion ${var:offset[:length]}, which expands to the substring of var’s value of length
length, beginning at offset, is present (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
• The expansion ${var/[/]pattern[/replacement]}, which matches pattern and replaces it with
replacement in the value of var, is available (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
• The expansion ${!prefix}* expansion, which expands to the names of all shell variables whose
names begin with prefix, is available (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
• Bash has indirect variable expansion using ${!word} (see Shell Parameter Expansion).
• Bash can expand positional parameters beyond $9 using ${num}.
• The POSIX $() form of command substitution is implemented (see Command Substitution), and
preferred to the Bourne shell’s `` (which is also implemented for backwards compatibility).
• Bash has process substitution (see Process Substitution).
• Bash automatically assigns variables that provide information about the current user (UID, EUID, and
GROUPS), the current host (HOSTTYPE, OSTYPE, MACHTYPE, and HOSTNAME), and the instance of
Bash that is running (BASH, BASH_VERSION, and BASH_VERSINFO). See Bash Variables, for
details.
• The IFS variable is used to split only the results of expansion, not all words (see Word Splitting).
This closes a longstanding shell security hole.
• Bash implements the full set of POSIX filename expansion operators, including character classes,
equivalence classes, and collating symbols (see Filename Expansion).
• Bash implements extended pattern matching features when the extglob shell option is enabled (see
Pattern Matching).
• It is possible to have a variable and a function with the same name; sh does not separate the two
name spaces.
• Bash functions are permitted to have local variables using the local builtin, and thus useful
recursive functions may be written (see Bash Builtins).
• Variable assignments preceding commands affect only that command, even builtins and functions (see
Environment). In sh, all variable assignments preceding commands are global unless the command is
executed from the file system.
• Bash performs filename expansion on filenames specified as operands to input and output redirection
operators (see Redirections).
• Bash contains the ‘<>’ redirection operator, allowing a file to be opened for both reading and writing,
and the ‘&>’ redirection operator, for directing standard output and standard error to the same file (see
Redirections).
• Bash includes the ‘<<<’ redirection operator, allowing a string to be used as the standard input to a
command.
• Bash implements the ‘[n]<&word’ and ‘[n]>&word’ redirection operators, which move one file
descriptor to another.
• Bash treats a number of filenames specially when they are used in redirection operators (see
Redirections).
• Bash can open network connections to arbitrary machines and services with the redirection operators
(see Redirections).
• The noclobber option is available to avoid overwriting existing files with output redirection (see
The Set Builtin). The ‘>|’ redirection operator may be used to override noclobber.
• The Bash cd and pwd builtins (see Bourne Shell Builtins) each take -L and -P options to switch
between logical and physical modes.
• Bash allows a function to override a builtin with the same name, and provides access to that builtin’s
functionality within the function via the builtin and command builtins (see Bash Builtins).
• The command builtin allows selective disabling of functions when command lookup is performed
(see Bash Builtins).
• Individual builtins may be enabled or disabled using the enable builtin (see Bash Builtins).
• The Bash exec builtin takes additional options that allow users to control the contents of the
environment passed to the executed command, and what the zeroth argument to the command is to be
(see Bourne Shell Builtins).
• Shell functions may be exported to children via the environment using export -f (see Shell
Functions).
• The Bash export, readonly, and declare builtins can take a -f option to act on shell
functions, a -p option to display variables with various attributes set in a format that can be used as
shell input, a -n option to remove various variable attributes, and ‘name=value’ arguments to set
variable attributes and values simultaneously.
• The Bash hash builtin allows a name to be associated with an arbitrary filename, even when that
filename cannot be found by searching the $PATH, using ‘hash -p’ (see Bourne Shell Builtins).
• Bash includes a help builtin for quick reference to shell facilities (see Bash Builtins).
• The printf builtin is available to display formatted output (see Bash Builtins).
• The Bash read builtin (see Bash Builtins) will read a line ending in ‘\’ with the -r option, and will
use the REPLY variable as a default if no non-option arguments are supplied. The Bash read builtin
also accepts a prompt string with the -p option and will use Readline to obtain the line when given
the -e option. The read builtin also has additional options to control input: the -s option will turn
off echoing of input characters as they are read, the -t option will allow read to time out if input
does not arrive within a specified number of seconds, the -n option will allow reading only a
specified number of characters rather than a full line, and the -d option will read until a particular
character rather than newline.
• The return builtin may be used to abort execution of scripts executed with the . or source
builtins (see Bourne Shell Builtins).
• Bash includes the shopt builtin, for finer control of shell optional capabilities (see The Shopt
Builtin), and allows these options to be set and unset at shell invocation (see Invoking Bash).
• Bash has much more optional behavior controllable with the set builtin (see The Set Builtin).
• The ‘-x’ (xtrace) option displays commands other than simple commands when performing an
execution trace (see The Set Builtin).
 • The test builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins) is slightly different, as it implements the POSIX
algorithm, which specifies the behavior based on the number of arguments.
• Bash includes the caller builtin, which displays the context of any active subroutine call (a shell
function or a script executed with the . or source builtins). This supports the bash debugger.
• The trap builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins) allows a DEBUG pseudo-signal specification, similar to
EXIT. Commands specified with a DEBUG trap are executed before every simple command, for
command, case command, select command, every arithmetic for command, and before the first
command executes in a shell function. The DEBUG trap is not inherited by shell functions unless the
function has been given the trace attribute or the functrace option has been enabled using the
shopt builtin. The extdebug shell option has additional effects on the DEBUG trap.

The trap builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins) allows an ERR pseudo-signal specification, similar to
EXIT and DEBUG. Commands specified with an ERR trap are executed after a simple command fails,
with a few exceptions. The ERR trap is not inherited by shell functions unless the -o errtrace
option to the set builtin is enabled.

The trap builtin (see Bourne Shell Builtins) allows a RETURN pseudo-signal specification, similar
to EXIT and DEBUG. Commands specified with an RETURN trap are executed before execution
resumes after a shell function or a shell script executed with . or source returns. The RETURN trap
is not inherited by shell functions unless the function has been given the trace attribute or the
functrace option has been enabled using the shopt builtin.

• The Bash type builtin is more extensive and gives more information about the names it finds (see
Bash Builtins).
• The Bash umask builtin permits a -p option to cause the output to be displayed in the form of a
umask command that may be reused as input (see Bourne Shell Builtins).
• Bash implements a csh-like directory stack, and provides the pushd, popd, and dirs builtins to
manipulate it (see The Directory Stack). Bash also makes the directory stack visible as the value of
the DIRSTACK shell variable.
• Bash interprets special backslash-escaped characters in the prompt strings when interactive (see
Printing a Prompt).
• The Bash restricted mode is more useful (see The Restricted Shell); the SVR4.2 shell restricted mode
is too limited.
• The disown builtin can remove a job from the internal shell job table (see Job Control Builtins) or
suppress the sending of SIGHUP to a job when the shell exits as the result of a SIGHUP.
• Bash includes a number of features to support a separate debugger for shell scripts.
• The SVR4.2 shell has two privilege-related builtins (mldmode and priv) not present in Bash.
• Bash does not have the stop or newgrp builtins.
• Bash does not use the SHACCT variable or perform shell accounting.
• The SVR4.2 sh uses a TIMEOUT variable like Bash uses TMOUT.

More features unique to Bash may be found in Bash Features.

B.1 Implementation Differences From The SVR4.2 Shell

Since Bash is a completely new implementation, it does not suffer from many of the limitations of the
SVR4.2 shell. For instance:

• Bash does not fork a subshell when redirecting into or out of a shell control structure such as an if or
while statement.
 • Bash does not allow unbalanced quotes. The SVR4.2 shell will silently insert a needed closing quote
at EOF under certain circumstances. This can be the cause of some hard-to-find errors.
• The SVR4.2 shell uses a baroque memory management scheme based on trapping SIGSEGV. If the
shell is started from a process with SIGSEGV blocked (e.g., by using the system() C library
function call), it misbehaves badly.
• In a questionable attempt at security, the SVR4.2 shell, when invoked without the -p option, will alter
its real and effective UID and GID if they are less than some magic threshold value, commonly 100.
This can lead to unexpected results.
• The SVR4.2 shell does not allow users to trap SIGSEGV, SIGALRM, or SIGCHLD.
• The SVR4.2 shell does not allow the IFS, MAILCHECK, PATH, PS1, or PS2 variables to be unset.
• The SVR4.2 shell treats ‘^’ as the undocumented equivalent of ‘|’.
• Bash allows multiple option arguments when it is invoked (-x -v); the SVR4.2 shell allows only
one option argument (-xv). In fact, some versions of the shell dump core if the second argument
begins with a ‘-’.
• The SVR4.2 shell exits a script if any builtin fails; Bash exits a script only if one of the POSIX special
builtins fails, and only for certain failures, as enumerated in the POSIX standard.
• The SVR4.2 shell behaves differently when invoked as jsh (it turns on job control).

Next: Indexes, Previous: Major Differences From The Bourne Shell, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

Appendix C GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
http://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

1. PREAMBLE

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document
free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with
or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves
for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible
for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must
themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a
copyleft license designed for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software
needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms
that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any
textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend
this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

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10.TERMINATION

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 12.RELICENSING

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the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (C) year your name.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
Free Documentation License''.

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with this:

with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with

the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being list.

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If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in
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Previous: GNU Free Documentation License, Up: Top [Contents][Index]

Appendix D Indexes
• Builtin Index: Index of Bash builtin commands.

• Reserved Word Index of Bash reserved words.

Index:

• Variable Index: Quick reference helps you find the variable you
want.

• Function Index: Index of bindable Readline functions.

• Concept Index: General index for concepts described in this

manual.

Next: Reserved Word Index, Up: Indexes [Contents][Index]

D.1 Index of Shell Builtin Commands

Jump to: . : [
A B C D E F G H J K L M P R S T U W

Index Entry Section

.: Bourne Shell Builtins

:: Bourne Shell Builtins

[: Bourne Shell Builtins

alias: Bash Builtins

B

bg: Job Control Builtins

bind: Bash Builtins

break: Bourne Shell Builtins

builtin: Bash Builtins

caller: Bash Builtins

cd: Bourne Shell Builtins

command: Bash Builtins

compgen: Programmable Completion

Builtins

complete: Programmable Completion

Builtins

compopt: Programmable Completion

Builtins

continue: Bourne Shell Builtins

declare: Bash Builtins

dirs: Directory Stack Builtins

disown: Job Control Builtins

echo: Bash Builtins

 enable: Bash Builtins

eval: Bourne Shell Builtins

exec: Bourne Shell Builtins

exit: Bourne Shell Builtins

export: Bourne Shell Builtins

fc: Bash History Builtins

fg: Job Control Builtins

getopts: Bourne Shell Builtins

hash: Bourne Shell Builtins

help: Bash Builtins

history: Bash History Builtins

jobs: Job Control Builtins

kill: Job Control Builtins

L

let: Bash Builtins

local: Bash Builtins

logout: Bash Builtins

mapfile: Bash Builtins

popd: Directory Stack Builtins

printf: Bash Builtins

pushd: Directory Stack Builtins

pwd: Bourne Shell Builtins

read: Bash Builtins

readarray: Bash Builtins

readonly: Bourne Shell Builtins

return: Bourne Shell Builtins

set: The Set Builtin

shift: Bourne Shell Builtins

 shopt: The Shopt Builtin

source: Bash Builtins

suspend: Job Control Builtins

test: Bourne Shell Builtins

times: Bourne Shell Builtins

trap: Bourne Shell Builtins

type: Bash Builtins

typeset: Bash Builtins

ulimit: Bash Builtins

umask: Bourne Shell Builtins

unalias: Bash Builtins

unset: Bourne Shell Builtins

wait: Job Control Builtins

Jump to: . : [
A B C D E F G H J K L M P R S T U W

Next: Variable Index, Previous: Builtin Index, Up: Indexes [Contents][Index]

D.2 Index of Shell Reserved Words
Jump to: ! [ ] { }
C D E F I S T U W

Index Entry Section

!: Pipelines

[[: Conditional
Constructs

]]: Conditional
Constructs

{: Command Grouping

}: Command Grouping

case: Conditional
Constructs

D
 do: Looping Constructs

done: Looping Constructs

elif: Conditional
Constructs

else: Conditional
Constructs

esac: Conditional
Constructs

fi: Conditional
Constructs

for: Looping Constructs

function: Shell Functions

if: Conditional
Constructs

in: Conditional
Constructs

select: Conditional
Constructs

T
 then: Conditional
Constructs

time: Pipelines

until: Looping Constructs

while: Looping Constructs

Jump to: ! [ ] { }
C D E F I S T U W

Next: Function Index, Previous: Reserved Word Index, Up: Indexes [Contents][Index]

D.3 Parameter and Variable Index

Jump to: ! # $ * - 0 ? @ _
A B C D E F G H I K L M O P R S T U V

Index Entry Section

!: Special Parameters

#: Special Parameters

$: Special Parameters
*

*: Special Parameters

-: Special Parameters

0: Special Parameters

?: Special Parameters

@: Special Parameters

_: Special Parameters

auto_resume: Job Control Variables

BASH: Bash Variables

 BASHOPTS: Bash Variables

BASHPID: Bash Variables

BASH_ALIASES: Bash Variables

BASH_ARGC: Bash Variables

BASH_ARGV: Bash Variables

BASH_CMDS: Bash Variables

BASH_COMMAND: Bash Variables

BASH_ENV: Bash Variables

BASH_EXECUTION_STRING: Bash Variables

BASH_LINENO: Bash Variables

BASH_REMATCH: Bash Variables

BASH_SOURCE: Bash Variables

BASH_SUBSHELL: Bash Variables

BASH_VERSINFO: Bash Variables

BASH_VERSION: Bash Variables

BASH_XTRACEFD: Bash Variables

bell-style: Readline Init File

Syntax

bind-tty-special-chars: Readline Init File

Syntax

CDPATH: Bourne Shell Variables

COLUMNS: Bash Variables

 comment-begin: Readline Init File
Syntax

completion-display-width: Readline Init File

Syntax

completion-ignore-case: Readline Init File

Syntax

completion-map-case: Readline Init File

Syntax

completion-prefix-display-length: Readline Init File

Syntax

completion-query-items: Readline Init File

Syntax

COMPREPLY: Bash Variables

COMP_CWORD: Bash Variables

COMP_KEY: Bash Variables

COMP_LINE: Bash Variables

COMP_POINT: Bash Variables

COMP_TYPE: Bash Variables

COMP_WORDBREAKS: Bash Variables

COMP_WORDS: Bash Variables

convert-meta: Readline Init File

Syntax

COPROC: Bash Variables

DIRSTACK: Bash Variables

disable-completion: Readline Init File

Syntax
E

editing-mode: Readline Init File

Syntax

EMACS: Bash Variables

enable-keypad: Readline Init File

Syntax

ENV: Bash Variables

EUID: Bash Variables

expand-tilde: Readline Init File

Syntax

FCEDIT: Bash Variables

FIGNORE: Bash Variables

FUNCNAME: Bash Variables

FUNCNEST: Bash Variables

GLOBIGNORE: Bash Variables

GROUPS: Bash Variables

histchars: Bash Variables

HISTCMD: Bash Variables

HISTCONTROL: Bash Variables

 HISTFILE: Bash Variables

HISTFILESIZE: Bash Variables

HISTIGNORE: Bash Variables

history-preserve-point: Readline Init File

Syntax

history-size: Readline Init File

Syntax

HISTSIZE: Bash Variables

HISTTIMEFORMAT: Bash Variables

HOME: Bourne Shell Variables

horizontal-scroll-mode: Readline Init File

Syntax

HOSTFILE: Bash Variables

HOSTNAME: Bash Variables

HOSTTYPE: Bash Variables

IFS: Bourne Shell Variables

IGNOREEOF: Bash Variables

input-meta: Readline Init File

Syntax

INPUTRC: Bash Variables

isearch-terminators: Readline Init File

Syntax
K

keymap: Readline Init File

Syntax

LANG: Bash Variables

LC_ALL: Bash Variables

LC_COLLATE: Bash Variables

LC_CTYPE: Bash Variables

LC_MESSAGES: Locale Translation

LC_MESSAGES: Bash Variables

LC_NUMERIC: Bash Variables

LINENO: Bash Variables

LINES: Bash Variables

MACHTYPE: Bash Variables

MAIL: Bourne Shell Variables

MAILCHECK: Bash Variables

MAILPATH: Bourne Shell Variables

MAPFILE: Bash Variables

mark-modified-lines: Readline Init File

Syntax

mark-symlinked-directories: Readline Init File

Syntax
 match-hidden-files: Readline Init File
Syntax

menu-complete-display-prefix: Readline Init File

Syntax

meta-flag: Readline Init File

Syntax

OLDPWD: Bash Variables

OPTARG: Bourne Shell Variables

OPTERR: Bash Variables

OPTIND: Bourne Shell Variables

OSTYPE: Bash Variables

output-meta: Readline Init File

Syntax

page-completions: Readline Init File

Syntax

PATH: Bourne Shell Variables

PIPESTATUS: Bash Variables

POSIXLY_CORRECT: Bash Variables

PPID: Bash Variables

PROMPT_COMMAND: Bash Variables

PROMPT_DIRTRIM: Bash Variables

PS1: Bourne Shell Variables

PS2: Bourne Shell Variables

 PS3: Bash Variables

PS4: Bash Variables

PWD: Bash Variables

RANDOM: Bash Variables

READLINE_LINE: Bash Variables

READLINE_POINT: Bash Variables

REPLY: Bash Variables

revert-all-at-newline: Readline Init File

Syntax

SECONDS: Bash Variables

SHELL: Bash Variables

SHELLOPTS: Bash Variables

SHLVL: Bash Variables

show-all-if-ambiguous: Readline Init File

Syntax

show-all-if-unmodified: Readline Init File

Syntax

skip-completed-text: Readline Init File

Syntax

T
 TEXTDOMAIN: Locale Translation

TEXTDOMAINDIR: Locale Translation

TIMEFORMAT: Bash Variables

TMOUT: Bash Variables

TMPDIR: Bash Variables

UID: Bash Variables

visible-stats: Readline Init File

Syntax

Jump to: ! # $ * - 0 ? @ _
A B C D E F G H I K L M O P R S T U V

Next: Concept Index, Previous: Variable Index, Up: Indexes [Contents][Index]

D.4 Function Index

Jump to: A B C D E F G H I K M N O P Q R S T U Y

Index Entry Section

abort (C-g): Miscellaneous Commands

accept-line (Newline or Return): Commands For History

alias-expand-line (): Miscellaneous Commands

B

backward-char (C-b): Commands For Moving

backward-delete-char (Rubout): Commands For Text

backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout): Commands For Killing

backward-kill-word (M-DEL): Commands For Killing

backward-word (M-b): Commands For Moving

beginning-of-history (M-<): Commands For History

beginning-of-line (C-a): Commands For Moving

call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e): Keyboard Macros

capitalize-word (M-c): Commands For Text

character-search (C-]): Miscellaneous Commands

character-search-backward (M-C-]): Miscellaneous Commands

clear-screen (C-l): Commands For Moving

complete (TAB): Commands For

Completion

complete-command (M-!): Commands For

Completion

complete-filename (M-/): Commands For

Completion

complete-hostname (M-@): Commands For

Completion

complete-into-braces (M-{): Commands For

Completion

complete-username (M-~): Commands For

Completion
 complete-variable (M-$): Commands For
Completion

copy-backward-word (): Commands For Killing

copy-forward-word (): Commands For Killing

copy-region-as-kill (): Commands For Killing

dabbrev-expand (): Commands For

Completion

delete-char (C-d): Commands For Text

delete-char-or-list (): Commands For

Completion

delete-horizontal-space (): Commands For Killing

digit-argument (M-0, M-1, … M--): Numeric Arguments

display-shell-version (C-x C-v): Miscellaneous Commands

do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, …): Miscellaneous Commands

downcase-word (M-l): Commands For Text

dump-functions (): Miscellaneous Commands

dump-macros (): Miscellaneous Commands

dump-variables (): Miscellaneous Commands

dynamic-complete-history (M-TAB): Commands For

Completion

edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e): Miscellaneous Commands

end-kbd-macro (C-x )): Keyboard Macros

 end-of-history (M->): Commands For History

end-of-line (C-e): Commands For Moving

exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x): Miscellaneous Commands

forward-backward-delete-char (): Commands For Text

forward-char (C-f): Commands For Moving

forward-search-history (C-s): Commands For History

forward-word (M-f): Commands For Moving

glob-complete-word (M-g): Miscellaneous Commands

glob-expand-word (C-x *): Miscellaneous Commands

glob-list-expansions (C-x g): Miscellaneous Commands

history-and-alias-expand-line (): Miscellaneous Commands

history-expand-line (M-^): Miscellaneous Commands

history-search-backward (): Commands For History

history-search-forward (): Commands For History

insert-comment (M-#): Miscellaneous Commands

insert-completions (M-*): Commands For

 Completion

insert-last-argument (M-. or M-_): Miscellaneous Commands

kill-line (C-k): Commands For Killing

kill-region (): Commands For Killing

kill-whole-line (): Commands For Killing

kill-word (M-d): Commands For Killing

magic-space (): Miscellaneous Commands

menu-complete (): Commands For

Completion

menu-complete-backward (): Commands For

Completion

next-history (C-n): Commands For History

non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n): Commands For History

non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p): Commands For History

operate-and-get-next (C-o): Miscellaneous Commands

overwrite-mode (): Commands For Text

P

possible-command-completions (C-x !): Commands For

Completion

possible-completions (M-?): Commands For

Completion

possible-filename-completions (C-x /): Commands For

Completion

possible-hostname-completions (C-x @): Commands For

Completion

possible-username-completions (C-x ~): Commands For

Completion

possible-variable-completions (C-x $): Commands For

Completion

prefix-meta (ESC): Miscellaneous Commands

previous-history (C-p): Commands For History

quoted-insert (C-q or C-v): Commands For Text

re-read-init-file (C-x C-r): Miscellaneous Commands

redraw-current-line (): Commands For Moving

reverse-search-history (C-r): Commands For History

revert-line (M-r): Miscellaneous Commands

self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, …): Commands For Text

 set-mark (C-@): Miscellaneous Commands

shell-backward-kill-word (): Commands For Killing

shell-backward-word (): Commands For Moving

shell-expand-line (M-C-e): Miscellaneous Commands

shell-forward-word (): Commands For Moving

shell-kill-word (): Commands For Killing

skip-csi-sequence (): Miscellaneous Commands

start-kbd-macro (C-x (): Keyboard Macros

tilde-expand (M-&): Miscellaneous Commands

transpose-chars (C-t): Commands For Text

transpose-words (M-t): Commands For Text

undo (C-_ or C-x C-u): Miscellaneous Commands

universal-argument (): Numeric Arguments

unix-filename-rubout (): Commands For Killing

unix-line-discard (C-u): Commands For Killing

unix-word-rubout (C-w): Commands For Killing

upcase-word (M-u): Commands For Text

yank (C-y): Commands For Killing

 yank-last-arg (M-. or M-_): Commands For History

yank-nth-arg (M-C-y): Commands For History

yank-pop (M-y): Commands For Killing

Jump to: A B C D E F G H I K M N O P Q R S T U Y

Previous: Function Index, Up: Indexes [Contents][Index]

D.5 Concept Index

Jump to: A B C D E F H I J K L M N O P Q R S T V W Y

Index Entry Section

alias expansion: Aliases

arithmetic evaluation: Shell Arithmetic

arithmetic expansion: Arithmetic Expansion

arithmetic, shell: Shell Arithmetic

arrays: Arrays

background: Job Control Basics

Bash configuration: Basic Installation

Bash installation: Basic Installation

Bourne shell: Basic Shell Features

brace expansion: Brace Expansion

 builtin: Definitions

command editing: Readline Bare Essentials

command execution: Command Search and Execution

command expansion: Simple Command Expansion

command history: Bash History Facilities

command search: Command Search and Execution

command substitution: Command Substitution

command timing: Pipelines

commands, compound: Compound Commands

commands, conditional: Conditional Constructs

commands, grouping: Command Grouping

commands, lists: Lists

commands, looping: Looping Constructs

commands, pipelines: Pipelines

commands, shell: Shell Commands

commands, simple: Simple Commands

comments, shell: Comments

completion builtins: Programmable Completion

Builtins

configuration: Basic Installation

control operator: Definitions

coprocess: Coprocesses
D

directory stack: The Directory Stack

editing command lines: Readline Bare Essentials

environment: Environment

evaluation, arithmetic: Shell Arithmetic

event designators: Event Designators

execution environment: Command Execution

Environment

exit status: Definitions

exit status: Exit Status

expansion: Shell Expansions

expansion, arithmetic: Arithmetic Expansion

expansion, brace: Brace Expansion

expansion, filename: Filename Expansion

expansion, parameter: Shell Parameter Expansion

expansion, pathname: Filename Expansion

expansion, tilde: Tilde Expansion

expressions, arithmetic: Shell Arithmetic

expressions, conditional: Bash Conditional Expressions

F
 field: Definitions

filename: Definitions

filename expansion: Filename Expansion

foreground: Job Control Basics

functions, shell: Shell Functions

history builtins: Bash History Builtins

history events: Event Designators

history expansion: History Interaction

history list: Bash History Facilities

History, how to use: Programmable Completion

Builtins

identifier: Definitions

initialization file, readline: Readline Init File

installation: Basic Installation

interaction, readline: Readline Interaction

interactive shell: Invoking Bash

interactive shell: Interactive Shells

internationalization: Locale Translation

job: Definitions
 job control: Definitions

job control: Job Control Basics

kill ring: Readline Killing Commands

killing text: Readline Killing Commands

localization: Locale Translation

login shell: Invoking Bash

matching, pattern: Pattern Matching

metacharacter: Definitions

name: Definitions

native languages: Locale Translation

notation, readline: Readline Bare Essentials

operator, shell: Definitions

parameter expansion: Shell Parameter Expansion

 parameters: Shell Parameters

parameters, positional: Positional Parameters

parameters, special: Special Parameters

pathname expansion: Filename Expansion

pattern matching: Pattern Matching

pipeline: Pipelines

POSIX: Definitions

POSIX Mode: Bash POSIX Mode

process group: Definitions

process group ID: Definitions

process substitution: Process Substitution

programmable Programmable Completion

completion:

prompting: Printing a Prompt

quoting: Quoting

quoting, ANSI: ANSI-C Quoting

Readline, how to use: Job Control Variables

redirection: Redirections

reserved word: Definitions

restricted shell: The Restricted Shell

return status: Definitions

S

shell arithmetic: Shell Arithmetic

shell function: Shell Functions

shell script: Shell Scripts

shell variable: Shell Parameters

shell, interactive: Interactive Shells

signal: Definitions

signal handling: Signals

special builtin: Definitions

special builtin: Special Builtins

startup files: Bash Startup Files

suspending jobs: Job Control Basics

tilde expansion: Tilde Expansion

token: Definitions

translation, native Locale Translation

languages:

variable, shell: Shell Parameters

variables, readline: Readline Init File Syntax

W

word: Definitions

word splitting: Word Splitting

yanking text: Readline Killing Commands

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